BBC Lay Reps blog

For the period April 2008 to April 2009, this report covers the areas to which I am allocated, which does not include the whole of the English Regions or any of the Nations.

Summary of meetings attended in my areas of responsibility:

Audio and Music Division

The division’s “continuous improvement plan” aka the 3% year on year savings, this year is based around the amalgamation of production teams in the same genre, reduction of original material and live music, more repeats and tightened budgets. Radio Drama has had its share of cuts, with the Asian Network soap “Silver Street” being reduced in episode numbers and consequently some staff headcount. In the current year there are no compulsory redundancies being forecast. Next year may be a different matter.

The division has proposed a number of new job descriptions which the Branch have found unacceptably wide-ranging, with a great deal of overlap between jobs. They have concerns that the underlying purpose of this is to reduce the grades and pay of staff over time, and pay less for higher responsibility. After a breakdown in negotiations, the BBC has made its final position known, and the branch response is awaited at the time of writing.

English Regions

The continuous improvement plan called Creative Futures continued to lead to post closures and other financial savings. The biggest blow was the rejection of BBC Local Video by the BBC Trust. A considerable number of posts were expected to be created, as well as saving others that had been held pending the BBC Trust’s decision. The Trust suggested some alternative ideas that ER management could make a bid for funding for, and that has now gone to the Trust with a decision on that expected in late April. The failure of this bid will have considerable consequences for our members in English Regions. Meantime, Slice and Dice funding ended on April 1st and ER management have been trying to devise ways of increasing video content on the websites whilst coping with smaller numbers of staff. Tense discussions are still ongoing with management at local level about a variety of solutions, with an ER wide review due in July. Last year I singled out BBC South West region, based in Plymouth, for poor industrial relations, and was optimistic that they were improving. The HRLP has just resigned from the BBC to “pursue other things” so we have an opportunity to build a new relationship with the incoming HRLP.

In one region, staffing is so dire that Broadcast Operators who picture edit, have been told to operate the Autocue for the 20:00 regional TV bulletin. The Branch have demanded talks on this, since Broadcast Operator members feel that this is a production responsibility. As of 1st April English Regions was split away from the Nations and is now part of News division. I suspect a busy year is ahead!

World Service

Following the launch last year of Arabic TV, Persian TV was launched in October and Arabic TV went 24 hours in November. A considerable number of consultation and local liaison meetings resulted. There are still issues of shift lengths, patterns and bank-holiday leave calculations to be resolved. Membership in Arabic TV is extremely high, and work is in hand to improve membership numbers in Persian TV. In the Radio services, with the belt tightening still continuing, the Russian service announced a reorganisation with potentially 9 redundancies. After a series of LLMs and some nifty footwork by both unions, no compulsory redundancies resulted and most of the members’ concerns were addressed satisfactorily.

BBC Monitoring

There have been a number of personal cases. Pat Styles has been involved, and it would seem that the management have little understanding of procedures and protocols. There is still much work to do in improving industrial relations in this rural corner of the BBC.

Sport

Following last years problems with staff overtime claims and special arrangements for travelling at the Olympics, it has been a quieter year. There were still some outstanding job cuts that had been postponed due to the Olympics and the new F1 contract. With the departure of Roger Mosey and the appointment of Barbara Slater as Head of Sport, a senior management reshuffle has been taking place in recent weeks. The BBC has just served notice that it now intends to sort out the outstanding redundancies prior to any Salford moves. Talks are awaited.

BBC Workplace

In my last report I covered the outsourcing of English Regions FM staff to Haden Building Management. That company has morphed into Balfour Beatty Workplace, and recently started sending letters to some of our ex-BBC members advising them that they were at risk of compulsory redundancy. At the time of writing Helen Ryan and I are seeking an urgent meeting with BBW, who seem to have ignored various provisions agreed last July as part of the TUPE process.

Project NEXT

The process to retain the remaining technology areas in-house whilst delivering the 3% efficiency savings has also been progressing. Following the first post closures in the Bristol under the NEXT programme, the management focus moved to the London Central Technical Areas. Broadcasting House Control Room (LCR), TV Centre control room (SCAR) and Bush House (NOC). Negotiations started off on the wrong foot with management making unsubstantiated claims that SCAR members would have to work in LCR doing night-shifts by September 2008, and then proceeding to table a new Rota pattern. As a result talks nearly broke down. Some behind the scenes discussions meant that the negotiations were halted, new HR and Project NEXT managers were appointed, and a rethink of the Employer/ Union working relationship.

This led to a series of training workshops covering “Principled Negotiating” in early 2009 for those Reps involved in Project NEXT. Negotiations recommenced shortly afterwards in a different atmosphere, and working in a far more collaborative manner.

Progress is slow because the decision was taken to tackle the hardest problems first. However, it looks probable that we will make positive progress in the coming months. A side effect of this “new way of working” is that all eyes of the BBC management are upon the negotiating teams, watching for success (or failure).

Personal Cases

I met with and supported some 15 members at 30 meetings. Six cases are still ongoing, one of which has been running for 3 years.

The smaller number of HR staff has hampered the speedy handling of cases for another year.

The Joint Working Group on Policy Simplification has agreed a number of revised policies. BECTU made strong representation in this forum for procedures to be completed more quickly. A general rule has now been agreed that 60 days should be the maximum except in special circumstances.

Time will tell if this is actually achieved.

Pensions

As a Member Elected Trustee of the BBC Pension Fund, I attended 27 days worth of meetings in the period of this review. The member elected Trustees yet again complained of an excessive burden being placed upon them, compared to the BBC nominated Trustees. As a result of a governance review this year, the way that the sub-committees to the main board are constructed is changing, and the workload will be more evenly spread across all Trustees.