Scottish Media dispute halted

Strike action at Scottish ITV companies has been called off after a peace offer from management.

The 24 hour stoppage, planned for 6 April, would have been the second strike at Scottish TV and Grampian TV, in a dispute over redundancies and pay cuts.

It was cancelled at short notice after Scottish Media Group, which owns the two ITV companies, agreed to improve the redundancy package on offer to staff at Grampian, and also accepted an accelerated round of top level negotiations with the unions to resolve differences over proposed pay cuts.

The two Grampian staff, both producer/directors, threatened with redundancy will now leave the company on 14 April with improved severance payments and guarantees of future opportunities to work as freelancers.

Other staff in Aberdeen, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, who face more redundancies, cuts in basic pay rates, and reductions in overtime and other payments, are now waiting for the outcome of renewed talks between Scottish Media's managing director and key union negotiators. Once these talks finsh, no later than May 1 according to the company, members will ballot on accepting or rejecting the new package of change that will have been hammered out by then.

Scottish Media's last-minute concessions came as members of BECTU and the NUJ prepared for a repeat of their stoppage on 29 March, which won solid support from staff, and took all local news off the air.

Members in Glasgow voted late on 5 April to suspend plans for a stoppage while talks continued, and a meeting in Aberdeen on the following day was expected to vote the same way.