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MUMBAI: Over the past month the BBC has announced two rounds of
job cuts in the UK which will amount to annual costs savings of
£355 million. British unions are not surprisingly unhappy
over the move.
Union leaders representing thousands of BBC staff have given the
corporation an ultimatum of withdrawing plans to axe almost 4,000
jobs or face strikes. Leaders of Bectu, the National Union of Journalists
and Amicus decided to call for a 90-day moratorium on the controversial
plans.
The unions have demanded that managers stopped asking for volunteers
for redundancy and to enter negotiations so that the proposals could
be properly evaluated. If the BBC does not agree to the demands
by 4 April the unions will ballot their members for strike action.
The unions have branded BBC DG Mark Thompson's job cuts as being
brutal.
Unions have questioned how the BBC could meet the challenges of
the future by axing frontline jobs. And Bectu has said the cuts
were "brutal" and would make the BBC less efficient. Comments
by Bectu members to the union's website included: "Get the
legal side sorted out pronto, let's get the ballot going and let's
get out on strike now."
As had been reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com Thompson said
that it was a difficult and painful process but necessary. The cuts
and savings will be made over the next three years. The general
secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Jeremy Dear has
been quoted in media reports saying, "First Mark Thompson severed
the BBC's arteries with the announcement of 1,700 job losses in
professional services, now we face the prospect of him ripping the
heart out of BBC programme-making."
"There's a real threat to BBC news and current affairs staff
and to programme-making staff. They are asking 80 per cent of the
staff to produce 100 per cent of the programmes. Amongst BBC staff,
the general reaction is one of anger and astonishment." The
job losses in news are expected to come from areas where correspondents
are currently "doubling up" - covering the same stories
for different bulletins. The NUJ said it expected Scotland and Newcastle
to be among the worst-hit areas, although the BBC said the cuts
in Scotland were on a par with Northern Ireland and Wales.
A protest is to be held in Glasgow as trade unions branded a BBC
move to axe 176 Scottish jobs as a disgrace. BBC Scotland controller
Ken MacQuarrie had announced the plan to streamline the business
by cutting workers in TV production, radio and administration. Workers
against the move will gather outside the BBC Glasgow HQ in a National
Union of Journalists protest.
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