This is taken from The Guardian:

Casual staff swell BBC numbers

by Jason Deans, broadcasting editor
Friday July 22, 2005

The BBC issues 12,000 casual and freelance contracts annually, bringing the total number of people who work for the corporation in a year to nearly 40,000, according to a newly published document.

These casual and freelance workers are in addition to the average BBC full-time staff figure of 27,264 for the 12 months to March 31 2005, as reported in the corporation's latest annual report, published last week.

The BBC deals with around 6,000 casual staff and an equal number of freelance workers each year. But such contracts may be for someone who only did a couple of days' work on a production during the year, a BBC spokesman said.

The figures for the number of casual and freelance workers the BBC hires each year are included in the tender document for the outsourcing of 265 posts from the corporation's human resources department, BBC People, which was issued this week.

Commercial contractors interested in landing the BBC HR outsourcing deal are asked to submit their bids by August 18.

The outsourcing of HR staff forms part of the cost-saving plans of the director general, Mark Thompson.

However, the BBC spokesman said a cost-cutting review of human resources had begun last year before Mr Thompson had formulated his proposals to save £355m annually by 2008.

"This is all part of our three-year savings plan. The idea is to get the best value for money for licence fee payers from our human resources operation."

He added that he was unable to give an exact figure for the amount the BBC was looking to save by outsourcing some of its HR department, because it was commercially sensitive at this stage of the tender process.

Broadcasting union Bectu said it would oppose the outsourcing plan and take industrial action if necessary.

"We think it's inappropriate and wrong and it's going to be more costly for the BBC in the long run. We will be fighting it, with strike action if necessary," said Luke Crawley, Bectu's senior BBC official.

In addition to outsourcing 265 HR posts, the BBC is planning 160 redundancies in the department.

This will leave BBC People with 150 working in training, 60 in pensions and benefits, and 55 health, safety and personal risk assessment staff.

There will be 100 personnel officers working around the BBC in different departments, 30 in information and records, and a core BBC People staff of 50, including strategy advisers and union negotiators.