Row represents ‘battle for the heart and soul’ of the corporation, says union
Employees at the BBC have voted overwhelmingly for strike action in response to the employer’s announcement it plans to cut jobs, including 415 posts in news.
The job losses are part of the corporation’s £800m efficiency savings, brought after the government froze its licence fee in 2010, and are expected to save £48m by 2017.
Nearly 200 new jobs will be created as part of plans to restructure the news department to ensure more support for digital advances. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Bectu said that managers had refused to confirm that there would be no compulsory redundancies despite a high interest in voluntary redundancy among staff.
The plans have angered employees prompting both unions to ballot their members for industrial action.
The NUJ said that 87 per cent of its members came out in favour of a campaign of industrial action and almost three-quarters (73 per cent) voted for all-out strike action, with the remainder voting for action short of a walk-out. In addition, more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of Bectu’s members voted for strike action and 84 per cent in favour of industrial action short of strikes.
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: “NUJ members see this as a battle for the heart and soul of the BBC. Our members know that these cuts are being targeted in the wrong direction - instead of sorting out managerial excesses and waste, it is grassroots journalism and programming facing the axe.
“It will be impossible for journalists to produce quality journalism of the kind they strive to unless output is similarly hacked, without serious damage being done to our members’ health and well-being.
“This dispute can be sorted out easily if the BBC wants to, which is why we are seeking the intervention of the director general. If we cannot reach a sensible settlement NUJ members stand prepared to take strike action in the coming weeks and months to bring their campaign to the attention of the broader public.”
Bectu assistant general secretary Luke Crawley said: “Given that the BBC has over 470 volunteers for redundancy and 195 new posts to fill, it would be easy to give us the guarantees we are seeking. The fact that management refuses to do so raise fears amongst staff that the BBC is not committed to redeploying the maximum number of staff.”
In response the BBC released this statement: "BBC News has recently announced a savings programme of nearly £50 million to address pressures from the licence fee settlement. The process of implementation, as relates to both restructuring and redundancies, has only just begun.
"We are aiming to work with colleagues across the BBC and with their union representatives in carrying through this challenging programme. We are disappointed that the unions have chosen to ballot for industrial action when the consultation process has barely started."