This is taken from The Guardian:

BBC staff face compulsory exit

by John Plunkett
Thursday December 15, 2005

Nearly 300 people face compulsory redundancy as part of the BBC's plans to axe 6,000 jobs and save £355m a year.

The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, revealed the projected figure for compulsory redundancies in an email to staff.

He said 88% of post closures were being met through voluntary departures, but another 12% of redundancies would have to be compulsory.

Once outsourcing - believed to account for around a third of the 6,000 job losses - natural wastage and other factors are taken into account, Mr Thompson's 12% is believed to equate to around 280 jobs.

"I don't underestimate the human impact of that number," wrote Mr Thompson, in his monthly email to BBC staff.

"Even one compulsory redundancy is a big and unpleasant event for the individual involved. But we now believe that the actual number of compulsory redundancies will be far lower than many people feared given the scale of the changes we have to make."

But trade union bosses reacted with dismay to the figure, saying they hoped the job losses could be achieved without any compulsory redundancies at all.

"We are going to oppose compulsory cuts whatever number they might be," said Paul McLaughlin, the national broadcasting officer for the National Union of Journalists.

"Our people will be preparing for the worst if that is what [the BBC] wants to do. We think this is definitely within sight of being achievable without compulsory cuts. Obviously, our mandate for strike action is still a live and very imminent threat."

Union members staged a 24-hour walkout in May in protest at the cutbacks. But a second stoppage was called off after a breakthrough in talks with management, including the offer of a further meeting to discuss the cost-cutting plans.

This meeting will take place on January 12, a day after a meeting of national union representatives.

Mr Thompson told staff that some "very valued and able colleagues" would be leaving the corporation.

"I and everyone else should be grateful to them for everything they've done for the BBC over the years," he said.

"But we're also convinced that, at the end of the process, we will still have a workforce with all the talent and skill we will need to succeed in the future.

"I know the process has taken longer than many people would have liked - I've felt as frustrated by that as anyone - but one real advantage of this painstaking approach is that we now believe we will be able to meet the individual preferences of more staff than anyone thought was possible a year ago."