Redundancy call at ITN

ITV's news provider is looking for job cuts after its contract was renewed.

Staff at the London-based company, which recently cut £11 million from the price of its service to ITV, have been invited to volunteer for redundancy before December 10.

Managers at the company have not indicated the final target for job cuts, but BECTU and the NUJ have been warned to expect at least 100 redundancies, with as many as 200 being possible.

Union representatives have pledged to resist compulsory job cuts, after the announcement from ITN that costs would have to be cut. BECTU and the NUJ have called for details of the company's new contract with ITV before making any judgement about the level of redundancies that might be justified.

ITN won a new contract with ITV after a bidding war against a rival consortium which included BSkyB. Its bid offered a news service to ITV which was priced well below the rate previously charged, and union members are at ITN are worried that quality of its newcasts will suffer.

BECTU is planning to hold meetings for members at ITN over the next two weeks.