BBC Lay Reps blog

Report of the Chair of BBC Division to BBC Divisional Conference, Bournemouth 2009

Lord Salisbury: “What do we need change for? Aren’t things bad enough as they are?”

When the Brand/Ross fiasco was in full swing, I sent a mischievous email (a dangerous thing I know!) saying that the BBC was instigating a new series of compulsory training sessions for all production staff, called “Pranks and Pratfalls: How not to Humiliate your Contributors”. It may be taken as a sign of the times, the state of the BBC and its staff’s collective paranoia, that I received a number of replies expressing outrage that we were being forced to do this!

However, what I hadn’t foreseen was the crazy idea of the Compliance demand, forcing everyone to sign the online Compliance document in yet another bonkers management over-reaction. There has been more negative reaction to this generalised and ill-considered all-staff email than any I have known before. If only the DG would occasionally stop and think before pandering to whatever daily newspaper he’s trying to appease that day.

Mark Thompson has created a truly weird beast from the Birtian ashes of the new Corporation. We’re still dealing with the crazed ideologies which created the internal market, and which make the current regime’s ONE BBC policy a hollow thing in which division vies against division. Meanwhile none of the senior managers (and let’s not forget that 50 of them are paid more than the Prime Minister!) seem able to make the simplest decision unless it’s green-lighted by the DG himself. A very strange and dysfunctional hierarchical structure, totally ill-suited to the modern media world.

Another result of past failures with which we’re actively dealing now is the BBC Trust. This was the direct result of the fiasco over the Hutton Enquiry and Dyke’s resignation, bringing down the Governors with him. But what replaced the old system was even worse, and that has been proven by the Trust’s betrayal of regional broadcasting and its bbclocalvideo proposal. Their craven and pusillanimous acquiescence to commercial interests shows where their heart lies – not only are they not pro-PSB, they’re actively and unashamedly anti-PSB. Your NJC representatives are trying to engage the Trust in conversation and debate, to help resolve some of the dreadful governance conundrums in which the BBC finds itself, with the Trust rapidly losing the confidence of staff and taking on itself powers which do not appear to be within its remit. On what basis does Michael Lyons, chair of the Trust, send all-staff emails out on all manner of contentious issues, when he says it’s not the Trust’s place to engage with the unions on these same issues? That’s why we need to engage them.

Across the BBC we’re now dealing with the consequences of the past decade of decisions from our paymasters and managers:

• The most recent License Fee settlement
• The renewed Charter
• The savage cuts of Value for Money and Creative Futures (ongoing of course)
• “Out of London” – Salford primarily, but also new commissioning of in-house and indies programming from the Nations and major regional centres in Bristol and Birmingham
• Which have also been influenced by the Network Supply Review

Running parallel were a series of production scandals – Vanessa Feltz “guests”, phone charging scams, Blue Peter con tricks, the Liebovitz/Queen edited trail, Brand and Ross. But these scandals were created and perpetuated by deliberate BBC policies which the union warned would result in chaos, and which every day threatens the integrity of our programmes and the jobs of our members:

• The rush to get rid of experienced staff who could argue against managers’ increasingly bizarre demands, leaving young and inexperienced staff easily threatened and exploited
• The dash to outsource and privatise, taking skills and knowledge out of the BBC, alienating committed BBC staff – all of which have resulted in just two things in return for a fistful of dollars – poorer services at higher prices
• And the determination to hand over increasing numbers of productions to independent companies; companies over whom we appear to have little control (vis Queengate, and the Ross and Brand shows produced by their own companies) and who have a duty only to increase their shareholders’ dividends, and not apply BBC standards and beliefs.

It ill-behoves BBC executives to appear in Newsnight bemoaning staff shortcomings when their avaricious, shortsighted and inadequate policies have actually created the problems.

So where does all that leave BECTU?

It leaves us fighting to defend a system of fair PSB funding and programming, when the management itself makes increasingly inadequate and strategically naïve attempts to do so;

It leaves us fighting to defend our members’ interest and rights against inconsistent and arbitrary divisional agendas;

From icav vans to GPS tracking systems in sat trucks; from Siemens contracts to Indian offshoring to Project Next; in all our ventures and contractors; from diversity issues (like our massively successful Move On Up events) to increasing demands for multi-skilling and “new ways of working” – like Value for Money and Creative Futures, hideously ironic descriptions of new ways of screwing even more out of staff. On all of these your representatives spend their time arguing, battling and trying to find the best deal we can.

Personally, the current financial situation has absolutely convinced me that we are best employed prioritising the following on our dealings with the BBC:

• Job security – while the commercial sector quakes, the demand for our programmes is as strong as ever, and the BBC should recognise the work we do rather than use the financial crisis as an excuse for cuts and pay freezes
• Pensions – clearly at the very top of our members’ concerns; our absolute determination is to defend the Final Salary Pension Scheme at all costs, and we may be forced into some decisions if the recession is longer than expected
• Terms & conditions – and in an era of “new ways of working”, making sure that our members’ working lives remain fulfilling and not exploited; the latest example being the astonishing “ITV Partnership” Memorandum of Understanding which seeks to save ITV’s regional news obligations by offering up BBC facilities and staff. The full ramifications of this bizarre idea have yet to work out, but we have had the first meeting with Deputy DG Mark Byford, and we’re also working closely with our colleagues in the IB Division – their chair attended our last Divisional meeting to discuss joint areas of interest.

2009 will be another important year in the history of the BBC.

• Salford will start becoming a reality, with many of our members facing tough decisions on moving;
• the Nations take on a much greater almost semi-autonomous role which absolutely fits with their political aspirations, but which may threaten the essential national integrity of the BBC;
• News and English Regions begin a further attempt to work together in harmony;
  Our programme-making and support units face further cuts and budget restrictions, and threats from growing independent companies;
• the possibility of a new Conservative government may increase, and with it threats to the whole notion of PSB and a license-fee funded BBC, beyond it the abyss of an unregulated free-market monster like American TV;
• and the nation’s financial situation remains in flux, demanding that we think carefully about any steps we take on Pay, Pensions and Jobs.

BECTU will continue to fight for a strong, publicly-funded BBC, committed to public service broadcasting across all genres, made across the whole country and reflecting the voices of people from all our nations and regions. It will fight for its members’ rights, and to protect terms and conditions at work. It will fight to make the BBC more diverse in its employment and more responsive and open to public enquiry and accountability. And it will fight to end the absurdities of the internal market inside the BBC which pit divisions and departments against each other.

BECTU believes the BBC, for all its craziness, is worth fighting to protect. We believe we can defend our members working within it, with their help and support. As the Basque fishermen say, “It’s easy to turn an aquarium into fish stew. It’s a lot harder to turn it back into an aquarium again.”