December 23, 2004


Staff wonder where cuts will hit

ACROSS the board cuts of 15 percent must hit jobs at BBC regional centres.

That was the depressing view of NUJ chapel officers as the implications of new director general Mark Thompson’s plans for the BBC became apparent.

Leeds has not been hit as badly as other BBC locations by the outcomes of the four simultaneous reviews, but MoC Nicky Addyman was left in no doubt that staff would be hit.

Overall, local radio faces budget cuts of 10 percent and regional television reductions of 12 percent.

As there is relatively little cash in the BBC's regional operations, the main costs are staff, leaving jobs vulnerable.

Leeds too is 'not as fat' as elsewhere, as the move across the city from Woodhouse Lane to St Peter’s Square had been made on the back of 10 redundancies.

'The Leeds newsroom is already cut to the bone in radio and television,' said Nicky. 'I don’t know where they could cut more.'

Trying to trim local radio and regional television budgets in Leeds means that both journalists and technical staff will have at least four more months of uncertainty before they will know whether their individual posts are safe, MoC Nicky Addyman pointed out.

The loss of 3,000 jobs across the Corporation was a disgrace, she said.

Mark Thompson wants the BBC to produce 60 percent of its output in-house, but anything more than that is likely to be put out to independent producers.

And, the Corporation's news and current affairs operations would not be immune from being hit by this 'indie quota'.

Across the BBC, NUJ chapel officers were quick to draft a resolution condemning Mark Thompson's proposals.

'His announcements showed high-handed disregard for the future of thousands of staff and threatened the very heart of the BBC,' it said.

The NUJ, together with Bectu and Amicus, is determined to resist any compulsory redundancies, with chapels uniting to oppose the scale and extent of the cuts and organise opposition locally and nationally.

Within days of the announcements, MPs regionally and nationally had were publicly expressing support for BBC staff.

Chapel officers were also keen that a day of local and national action, probably early in the new year, would get strong backing – from staff, politicians and the public.

Although some managers tried to placate staff that 'local television' – bulletins produced for individual cities using more VJ video journalists – would help protect jobs, the scheme has only had one brief pilot, in Shropshire.

Although a second trial is expected in Birmingham, the 10-minute programmes are unlikely to become regular productions until 2007 at the earliest.