BBC RESOURCES DEAL OVERWHELMINGLY REJECTED

REVISED proposals for changes in BBC London Operations have been turned down in a ballot.
Only 14.5 per cent of members participating in the ballot voted to accept a new package that included cuts in conditions of service payments and job numbers.
The package contained a number of concessions from management which were tabled in an effort to reach agreement after a one-day strike over the changes in December.
However, negotiators believed that the revised proposals were still unacceptable, and are said to have urged members in Studios, Post-Production and Graphics, and Outside Broadcasts to vote for rejection.
Members in the department are now free to resume their campaign of industrial action against the changes, and instructions are likely to be issued early in February.
There was no need for the union to proceed with plans for an immediate work-to-rule because management decided to postpone the threatened implementation of the new conditions of service for at least a month.
Management are now expected to give individual staff one month's notice of a change in their terms and conditions by letter in the next few days. This would move the implementation date into early March.
In the postal ballot of members, 861 voting papers were issued. 52 members voted to accept the new package, compared with 305 who voted to reject.
The dispute began in London Operations last July when management tabled plans to save £12m, half of their in staff costs.
The dispute is separate from the BBC-wide changes in expenses payment which were due to be introduced without agreement on February 1. (CD)