BBC Lay Reps blog

I attended this meeting on May 2nd.

Minutes of the previous meeting did not seem to have been received, despite claims that they had been circulated. 

Management again reminded the Unions that staffing and budgets at TW are the lowest in Eng Regions.
However, the region had continued to gain recognition for excellent programming both by doing well at winning awards and raising already respectable viewing/ listening figures to new heights.

The HRLP congratulated all staff involved in the Folkestone earthquake coverage. Dedication and professionalism by all led to superbly co-ordinated programming on Radio, TV and On-Line

It was reported that one of the radio stations in the cluster is experiencing an above average level of staff taking maternity leave. This has stretched the budgets even tighter

The Video Server at TW has been highly unreliable in recent weeks. A rebuild of the machine had just been carried out in the hope that reliability would improve. ER Management have accepted that there is an urgent need to replace this system with a new (Quantel?) one. The earliest this could be on-line would be quarter 2, 2008 however.

The future of reception and the Shop is still under discussion. The BBC Trust is involved in the process.

BECTU raised the issue of what constitutes a “standby” shift. It was clear from Agreed Statements that to hold someone on standby, thereby expecting them to be available for duty at short notice, was considered as “working time” and thus would attract payment. Management agreed to look into specific cases outside the meeting.

BECTU noted that there was an expectation at weekends that the Broadcast Operators could all do VJ type work, but using professional crew cameras etc. Only a few staff were suitably trained, so the Union wanted it clarified to Producers and schedulers. Some members had been pressurised to do work that they felt they were not trained for. This should now stop.

Car Parking in the side alley: issues remain. Management undertook to remind offenders of the rules.

Review of Engineering: This was a BBC wide review, and so far no details have been provided to local management. Clarity is being sought by the BECTU at English Regions level.

The Union side raised the issue of pressure being brought on members to cut short or even skip their lunch breaks. Management said that this was not acceptable, and agreed to discuss individual cases outside of the meeting.

Next Meeting scheduled for July 16th 2007.