BBC faces industrial action if workforce slashed

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... bbc309.xml

By Nicole Martin, Digital and Media Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:51am BST 10/10/2007

The BBC will face industrial action if it goes ahead with proposals to axe more than 2,800 jobs as part of a drive to save hundreds of millions of pounds, broadcasting unions have warned.

Rumours of substantial job losses have been circling for months, but the 2,800 figure mooted today will come as a shock to the corporation’s 23,000 employees.

It comes less than three years after Mark Thompson, the director general, told staff that 3,780 jobs would be cut in a move which unions said would "rip the heart out of the BBC".

The new job losses are on top of those cuts, leading unions to warn that they will undermine the quality of the BBC’s output.

Sources said that the factual department, which produces some of the BBC’s most popular documentary series such as Timewatch and Horizon, would bear the brunt of the latest wave of redundancies.

The full details of the job cuts will be announced next week after Mr Thompson presents his final cost-cutting proposals to the Trust for approval.

He needs to save £2 billion over the next five years to close the gap between the cost of his plans for the BBC and the amount the corporation will receive from the less-than-expected licence fee settlement.

Cuts have to be made allow him to fulfil his commitments, including moving some BBC departments to Salford, investing in the corporation’s multimedia future and helping to fund digital switch over.

Gerry Morrissey, the general secretary of broadcast union Bectu, said it was "inevitable" that staff would go on strike if reports of up to 2,800 job cuts proved correct.

"We are going to go back to the days of the John Birt era where people were always looking for their next jobs. It was a very unhappy time," he said.

"What we are saying to our members is that they will not be able to do what they do at the moment - maintain the quality with significantly less staff. It’s not going to be possible."

Paul McLaughlin, the national broadcasting organiser at the National Union of Journalists, said: "Any major exercise involving the imposition of job losses will be met with serious resistance.

"If you make cuts in news and current affairs output, you are damaging the core business of the BBC."

The prospect of further job losses will deliver yet another blow, which is still reeling from the so-called Crowngate affair and the resignation of Peter Fincham, the controller of BBC1, last week.

He was heavily criticised in an independent report for showing the incorrectly edited programme trailer which, he claimed, showed the Queen storming out of a photo-shoot in a "huff" when the footage was of her walking in.


Wonder if they have such biased reporting on their action when they go out ?