Granada/BBC promise plan talks

BECTU is expecting to be given details of 3sixtymedia's business plan at a meeting in September.

The company, a TV facilities operation jointly owned by Granada Media and the BBC, agreed to show negotiators its business forecasts, when BECTU met board-level managers on August 19

All staff in 3sixtymedia, which is planned to open its doors on November 1, will be drawn from the parent companies - 300 from Granada and 84 from the BBC

At the first meeting with the shadow management team who will take over in November, the company confirmed that all staff would be covered by the TUPE regulations, which provide some protection for terms and conditions when workers are transferred into new companies.

Additionally, the BBC said that their staff would be able to remain in the BBC Pension Scheme provided they were members at the point of transferring into 3sixtymedia.

Negotiators questioned whether the new company could support all the staff who would transfer, and demanded that any redundancies should be handled before the transfer took place.

BECTU was particularly concerned about the possibility that BBC producers, whose programmes are thought to be factored in to the new company's business plan, may not choose to use the studio and post-production facilities on offer because they were based at Granada's Quay Street site in Manchester.

Until management have allayed fears that staff could be cut soon after the company opens for business, BECTU is urging the Minister, Chris Smith, to withhold the government permission that the BBC needs to participate in the venture.

In a letter to Greg Dyke, BBC Director General, the union called for 3sixtymedia to be given gurantees of production work from programme makers at the BBC's Oxford Road centre, which will stay open despite the closure of its two TV studios and editing suites.