New pay offer at Granada

A new pay offer has been tabled to union members at Granada TV in a bid to end a work to rule that could take Coronation Street off the air.

Granada management have admitted that the action by union members at the company's Manchester and Liverpool sites over this year's pay claim has left producers of the popular soap serial with less than two weeks' material in the can. Company executives warned that any continuation of the current ban on working more than 12 hours a day will exhaust the stock of episodes in hand, and the programme will be taken off air.

The new pay offer, proposed by Granada on 28 June, included improved payments for working Bank Holidays, and a plan for infringements of the legal rest breaks contained in the European Working Time Directive to be rewarded on an hour-by-hour basis with compensatory time off, which staff can take when it suits them.

A meeting of Granada union members on 1 July will decide whether to put the offer to staff in a postal ballot, or continue with the action. An earlier peace offer put forward by Granada was rejected by members in Manchester and Liverpool, although a similar offer was accepted by staff at Yorkshire and Tyne Tees Television, also part of Granada Media Group (GMG).

A work-to-rule is continuing at London Weekend Television, the last ITV company in GMG, where no significant improvement has been made to the 3.6% pay offer tabled in January.