Final SE Review meeting

The final South East Review meeting has taken place.

Representatives of BECTU and the NUJ met Jane Mote, Laura Ellis and Mike Fieldsend on 18th January 2001 for an update on the South East and London.

Redundancies at Elstree

All redundancies had been mutually agreed and there would not be any compulsory redundancies. Management believed that the emphasis of the Designer and Operator/ Library posts had changed and staff would be recruited under a multiskilling ethos.

The post of Technical Organiser would be closed boarded.

The two Multimedia Coordinator posts were being offered to present staff. If they were unsuccessful, they would be "technically" redundant. However, management believed there would be other opportunities for them at Marylebone High Street.

There would be no changes regarding the drivers.

It was regretted that late volunteers for redundancy could not be accommodated.

Future discussions

It was agreed that discussions should take place in future at local level. There would be a further meeting at this (directorate) level about six months after the new stations were up and running.

Marylebone High Street

Jane Mote, Executive Editor, gave the unions a preview of the presentation she would be making to staff over the next two days.

New ways of working

PSE staff would merge on their existing terms and conditions with convergence being assessed after the launch. BJs would be editing bulletins and oovs and some packages with high end editing skills retained for specials, longer films and mentoring. On-the- road journalists would be multi-media capable.

Multi-skilled District Journalists would be based in Essex, Hertfordshire, Southall and Peckham. They would use DVCs and be capable of editing.

MHS centre

Provisional on-air dates had been set for radio and television which would be governed by the technical installation. On site training would begin in March. Extra staff would be recruited to enable training to take place.

Tunbridge Wells

Laura Ellis (HRLP) gave a presentation on the new centre at Tunbridge Wells. As the project is nearing completion, the unions asked for a meeting to be held there. It was agreed this would take place on 6 February.
20 January 2001