A summer of discontent looks to be looming at the BBC over pay, pensions and compulsory redundancies.

BBC news coverage could be affected after unions announced a ballot for industrial action over staff cuts, which will end on 5 July – the same day the National Union of Journalists meets to discuss "pursuing legal avenues" with the BBC over controversial changes to the corporation's pension scheme.

In addition, staff are being balloted over a pay offer of 2%. That ballot closes on 21 June and two days later the NUJ is to lobby MPs at the House of Commons primarily over proposals to axe or merge some BBC regional TV news opt-outs.

According to the NUJ, staff in BBC Monitoring, BBC Scotland and the World Service are facing compulsory redundancy, with some "facing dismissal from the BBC in mid-July".

In a briefing to BBC NUJ members, general secretary elect Michelle Stanistreet said: "We have been seeking to resolve these by negotiation and will continue to do so, however it is critical that NUJ members stand up again and defend the principle of no compulsory redundancies among NUJ members at the BBC."

The long-running dispute over changes to the BBC's pension scheme continues to rumble on with the NUJ objecting to the corporation's intention to limit the proportion of any future pay increases that will count towards pensions.

Stanistreet said the NUJ is looking at "pursuing legal avenues" following the outcome of the ballot on the BBC's pay offer, adding: "We have been told that there are good grounds for arguing that this limit is unlawful."

The two ballots and lobby of MPs come as the BBC tries to find ways to make cuts of 20% following a stringent licence fee deal last autumn agreed with the coalition government, through director general Mark Thompson's Delivering Quality First review.

Staff are due to be briefed on the latest DQF thinking by executives later in June, with the final proposals to be put to the BBC Trust later in the summer.

In BBC News, hundreds of jobs are under threat, mostly reporting roles, due to the domestic newsgathering operation's impending merger with the World Service.

The last significant industrial action at the corporation was in November 2010, when there was a 48-hour strike by BBC journalists over pension changes. The BBC drafted in former GMTV newsreader Emma Crosby and its own director of news, Helen Boaden, to keep a skeleton service on air.


By:- Tara Conlan

Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/15/bbc-summer-of-discontent