BBC journalists plan work to rule

An indefinite work to rule among BBC journalists will begin after another 24-hour strike on Monday More disruption to BBC news programmes is on the cards over the coming weeks with journalists “indefinitely” working to rule following a 24-hour strike on Monday. The BBC News Channel is like to be most affected by the action, which is taking place in protest over compulsory redundancies . Following last Friday’s strike , another 24 hour stoppage is due to take place on Monday. National Union of Journalists’ members at the corporation have been told in an internal memo that “an indefinite work to rule will begin across the BBC from 00.01 on Tuesday August 2nd immediately following the 24 hour strike”. According to corporation sources, working to rule could be more effective at causing disruption because many staff on the BBC News Channel “act up” to cover more senior positions during busy news days. On Tuesday afternoon, talks are taking place between the NUJ and BBC management over the three members of staff in BBC Monitoring and the World Service who have been made compulsorily redundant. It is understood that another NUJ member has been made compulsorily redundant since last week’s strike, despite sitting and passing a test for an alternative job. According to the internal memo there is also a claim that “work which could be done by a second member dismissed from BBC Monitoring is being done by individuals flown in from overseas instead”. Meanwhile, BBC management has agreed to meet all the broadcasting unions on 11 August to discuss the corporation’s stance on redundancies in light of the cuts due to take place as a result of the Delivering Quality First initiative . A BBC spokeswoman said: “We are disappointed that the NUJ has chosen to take industrial action and implement work to rule over these redundancies. These actions do not alter the fact that the BBC is faced with a number of potential compulsory redundancies following significant cuts to the central government grants that support the World Service and BBC Monitoring. “We will continue with our efforts to reduce the need for compulsory redundancies. However, the number of posts that we are having to close means that unfortunately it is likely to be impossible for us to avoid some compulsory redundancies. “The BBC has been in continuous dialogue with the NUJ over the past week.” BBC National Union of Journalists Media unions Television industry Radio industry Tara Conlan guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 26, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.