BBC news programmes disrupted by strike

BBC television and radio news programmes were disrupted this morning by a 24-hour strike staged by journalists at the broadcaster.

BBC Radio 4's flagship Today programme was broadcast an hour late, at 7am, while BBC1's Breakfast show was off-air, replaced by the BBC News channel feed.

Thousands of journalists at the broadcaster are on strike today in protest against compulsory redundancies, with staff at national, regional and local centres up and down the country mounting pickets.

A spokesman for the National Union of Journalists said today that the turnout for today's strike was "very solid".

Yesterday the union accused BBC management of avoiding talks ahead of today's strike. It also claimed that senior management had "shown no real interest in negotiations".

According to the NUJ, more than 100 people are at risk of compulsory redundancy at the BBC World Service alone, with staff in BBC Monitoring, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, BBC 4, BBC Sport and TV Current Affairs also potentially at risk.

Both the World Service and BBC Monitoring suffered cuts to government grants following the comprehensive spending review, with the costs of both to be absorbed by the BBC licence fee from 2013/4.

Picket lines formed outside BBC offices today, with the NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet joining strikers outside Television Centre.

The union is calling on BBC management to:

• Extend the leaving dates of those immediately at risk to allow for further talks;
• Agree to release volunteers;
• Cut the red tape when it comes to redeployment and make it happen;
• Use vacant posts to offset the costs of employing those at risk;
• Apply fairness across the BBC and treat people the same – wherever they work.

But Stanistreet said today that the broadcaster's stance on the negotiations was "stubborn and provocative" and "fully justified" the strikes.

"We have offered to meet the BBC next week or when it's convenient to the BBC, and have asked management to extend the leaving dates of those individuals immediately affected by redundancy in order to allow the talks to take place. Management has refused. We also offered to meet with the BBC at ACAS today. Management has refused.

A spokesman for the BBC said the broadcaster was "disappointed" by the strike and apologised to its audience.

"We are disappointed that the NUJ is intending to strike and apologise to our audience for any disruption to services this may cause.

"We have had to reduce the number of posts in World Service and BBC Monitoring by 387, following significant cuts to the central government grants that support these services. In a significant majority of cases we have been able to reach this through voluntary redundancy or redeployment.

"However, there are in excess of 100 BBC posts for which compulsory redundancy is regrettably unavoidable, and this is our focus, regardless of whether staff are members of unions."

 

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