Dispute with ntl: goes back to ACAS

A dispute over new terms and conditions at transmission company ntl: is being referred back to government conciliator ACAS.

BECTU is due to meet the company's management again on Wednesday April 28, in the last of three meetings prompted by industrial action by members in protest at the planned changes.

After earlier meetings held on April 7 and April 21, negotiators said that "progress had been made". However the union kept the pressure up by continuing with industrial action, including an embargo on emergency callouts which has caused ntl: serious difficulty.

The embargo came after a ballot in which 80% of BECTU's 500-plus members at the company participated, of whom 78% voted in favourk of action. Many union members in the company's Broadcast division could lose up to £4,000 a year if the controversial new terms and conditions are pushed through by management.