Support the CBBC Six

Union members are being asked to sign an online petition which condemns the sacking of staff in BBC Children's TV.

It follows a successful one-day strike by the department's dozen members on 10 July, when pickets were given encouragement and support by thousands of other BBC staff.

Go straight to BECTU petition [closes 1200 on 30 September 2007]

The stoppage was held in protest at a management decision to issue notice of compulsory redundancy to six producers and assistant producers in the CBBC Education Unit, while turning down more than a dozen volunteers elsewhere in Children's TV.

Managers claimed that the members facing dismissal were too specialised to work elsewhere in production jobs, even though the Education Unit had been treated as an integral part of Children's for more than five years, with frequent rotation of staff.

Helen Ryan, BECTU's chief BBC official, said: "Despite there being an over-subscription for voluntary redundancy in other areas of Children's TV where these staff could be redeployed, the BBC will not retract the notices of compulsory redundancy."

The union believes this looks like the attitude BBC members may all face when the redundancies Mark Thompson say he needs are announced this Autumn; and that is important to let Corporation management know members will not tolerate the cavalier attitude being shown to staff in the Children's department.

Union officials have contrasted the treatment of the CBBC Six with DG Mark Thompson's commitment to retraining and resettlement as preferred alternatives to redundancy.

Members across the BBC are being asked to show support by signing the petition below.

[Update: the petition has now closed and the form below has been deactivated]

CBBC Six petition

To BBC Director General Mark Thompson:

I support the efforts of staff in the CBBC Education Unit to prevent compulsory redundancies of six colleagues, a decision made by local management despite the existence of many more volunteers who would be willing to leave.

I call on the BBC to accept sufficient volunteers for redundancy, and enable staff in the Education Unit to be redeployed in the resultant vacant posts, rather than being dismissed on grounds of compulsory redundancy.

I applaud the determination of union members in the area to achieve a fair settlement to the dispute over job cuts, and congratulate them for their unified industrial action on 10th July.

[Petition closes 1200 on 30 September 2007]

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