Recognition success at MTV

Staff at the music station's Camden HQ have voted for BECTU to represent them.

In a ballot of staff in the company's broadcast services section, the union won enough votes to force MTV to begin collective bargaining.

The independent scrutineer who organised the ballot announced today that almost 73% of staff who took part in the vote had supported BECTU's presence in their workplace.

Participation in the ballot was 56% of the 131 staff who were balloted, but the vote for union recognition still represented more than 40% of the overall workforce.

Under new labour laws designed to guarantee recognition for unions who demonstrate sufficient support in non-union workplaces, MTV now has 30 days to agree a mechanism for collective bargaining with BECTU.

If no bargaining structure is set up by then, the goverment's Central Arbitration Council, the body which order the ballot, will step in and impose a negotiating system on the company.

Union officials congratulated BECTU members at MTV for courage and determination they had shown in the face of management hostility to the union.

BECTU now hopes that MTV will allow a climate of constructive industrial relations to grow at the company. Representatives are also hoping to deal with many of the collective problems at MTV that originally led staff to invite the union in.