Doubts over Granada/BBC joint venture
BECTU has questioned the long-term survival of a joint TV facility company being set up in Manchester.
Fears were raised at a meeting on September 1, when the union was given an outline of the business plan for 3sixtymedia, the new company being set up by Granada Media and the BBC.
In the plan, revealed by directors of 3sixtymedia, £8m worth of new business has been forecast for the first year of trading, on top of the existing work being done by Granada and the BBC in Manchester.
Union negotiators fear that the target will be missed, leading to widespread redundancies among the 384 Granada and BBC staff due to transfer into the new company on November 1.
BECTU believes that any staff reductions should be made before 3sixtymedia starts trading, and redundant staff should be paid off under the current agreements at the two broadcasters.
More financial worries were raised over the pension contributions that 3sixtymedia would have to make in future. Staff are being allowed to remain in their current pension schemes, and the new company will pay into the funds as if they were still working at Granada and the BBC.
However, Granada is currently taking a "pension holiday", taking advantage of a surplus in the fund to postpone the employer's payments. When the holiday ends in roughly three years, 3sixtymedia will face an immediate demand for payments equal to 17% of the wages paid to ex-Granada staff.
BECTU believes that this could put an impossible strain on finances, casting further doubt over the long-term future for 3sixtymedia.
Representatives of the new company were unable to give any guarantees about future employment levels in response to union concerns that many BBC producers would transfer their programmes to London once the two Oxford Road studios closed, depriving 3sixtymedia of work.
No answer has yet been received from BBC Director-General Greg Dyke, who was asked formally by the union to promise the new company minimum levels of BBC work in future.
At the meeting, the new management were however able to make other concessions to the union:
- Redundancy payments will be guaranteed at current Granada and BBC levels for the first three years of the company's existence.
- BBC staff on short contract who are transferred into 3sixtymedia will be promised a permanent job and access to the BBC pension scheme three years after the date they joined the Corporation's books.
- Regional news crews in Granada will not now be forced to move into the new company if a majority decide to move into Granada Production, which is not involved in the joint venture company.
The new management promised to consider a possible guarantee of no changes in conditions of service for the first three years, in response to a union demand for stability.
Staff meetings in Granada and the BBC, set up at the union's request, are now planned within a fortnight - management were asked to present the business plan directly to the people affected.
Further detailed union negotiations are expected to follow.