DYKE FACES TWO BALLOTS FROM BECTU MEMBERS

BECTU members in BBC Education and BBC Technology are to vote on Director-General Greg Dyke’s reorganisation plans within the department.
Education members are to take part in a full strike ballot, papers have been sent to members and the ballots are due to be counted on November 3.
Members are being asked whether they will take industrial action to head off possible redundancies which the union fears could happen once the department has been split up and transferred to other parts of the BBC.
A BBC spokesperson said these fears were ungrounded; the overall aim of the restructuring was not to create redundancies but to strengthen the Education department. The departments, which they would be transferred into, are not over capacitated and the new structure will require their specialist input.
The Union are mounting a lobbying campaign to keep the Education Department in one piece, and have argued that the BBC’s pool of talent in this genre will be diluted by the proposed break-up.
A spokesperson for the BBC said: “Education is an essential mission for the BBC. The new structure offers not only support for educational programmes but also an educational dimension in the factual and learning. Of course we are disappointed that BECTU members in Education may ballot on this issue as changes are in the best interests, giving education stronger voice.”
According to the union many of Education’s staff are expected to move to sections of Factual and Learning division, one of four new production centres in Dyke’s redesigned BBC. Management plan to move other education staff into children’s Programmes part of another new production department, Drama, Entertainment and Children’s.
In BBC Technology Ltd members from Information Technology, Broadcast Technology Resources, and parts of the distribution and Technology Division are to vote on proposals to integrate them all into a new company.
The Union are advising that, while the protection package is the best that can be achieved through negotiation, the case for setting up a separate company is unconvincing. Culture Minister Chris Smith has already been told by the Union that a combined department inside the BBC could undertake the relatively limited levels of external work planned for Technology Ltd without falling foul of European competition rules.
A BBC spokesperson said they expect that BBC Technology Ltd would have increased output and enjoy a large growth in external trade: “An agreement had been reached on a longer-term contract and this is the best deal which they will be offering to staff.”