Strike notice for Scottish Media

BECTU, NUJ, and AEEU unions have given notice of a strike ballot to the company that owns Scottish and Grampian TV.

The union warning, required by law before any strike ballot, came after talks broke down on a management plan to cut staffing and wages at the two Scottish TV companies.

Scottish Media Group management, meeting the unions in Glasgow on Monday February 21, rejected a call for the threat of compulsory redundancy to be lifted from staff in order to allow talks on redeployment and retraining.

Company executives at the meeting went on to threaten that future pay increases should not be handled by collective bargaining with the unions, and that several departments should be subjecting to market testing as a prelude to being contracted out.

The disagreement between the unions and SMG had begun with a proposal from management that pay freezes or cuts should be imposed on roughly 100 staff, and that 7 posts in production should be closed in Glasgow and Aberdeen. Four volunteers came forward, and management declared that three more producer/directors would be made compulsorily redundant.

By the time the two sides met on February 21, the company had increased the number of staff affected by the pay freeze to 160.

BECTU plans to issue ballot forms to members at the company on March 1, and the ballot will close on March 17, allowing the union to call industrial action from March 24.

Annual figures for Scottish Media Group released on February 22 revealed a 17% increase in turnover, taking its TV division income to £140.3m. The annual report attributes the increase to strong advertising revenue, contradicting management claims to the unions that cuts were necessary due to "declining revenue from advertising."

The Scottish Pariament's Culture Committee has announced an inquiry into the record of Scottish and Grampian TV in meeting their licence obligations to provide high quality, locally produced, programming in their areas.