BBC staff set for strike ballot

Wednesday, 13 April 2005 12:00 AM

BBC staff will be balloted by unions on industrial action following the breakdown of talks with BBC management.

The three-hour meeting between Bectu, the National Union of Journalists, Amicus and BBC director general Mark Thompson came after the BBC said it was intent on saving £355 million a year in a corporate restructuring exercise, resulting in 4,000 job losses over the next three years.

The BBC plans to save £221 million by 2008 and ring-fence monies for new programmes ahead of its digital switchover.

In a statement last night, the BBC said it had been unable to meet "unrealistic demands from the unions".

The statement continued: "The BBC stressed that it has every intention of working with the unions to address staff concerns whilst needing to make changes to meet its audience's changing needs and demands and achieve greater value for money for licence fee payers."

Although the BBC said job losses would be achieved through natural staff turnover and voluntary redundancies, it did not rule out compulsory redundancies.

"The BBC made it clear that it would do everything it could to mitigate the effects on staff of the job losses, but this could only be achieved by continuing dialogue and consultation with the unions," the statement added.

Unions said the ballot was taking place precisely because compulsory redundancies had not been ruled out.

Luke Crawley of Bectu said the job losses signified the "most damaging cuts" in the BBC's history.

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