THE threat of looming industrial action at the BBC by journalists and technicians has been lifted following an agreement announced today.
In a joint statement issued by the BBC, the National Union of Journalists, BECTU and Unite, agreement has been struck on “key principles” on pay, performance ratings and redeployment.
The upcoming Diamond Jubilee being celebrated by The Queen had been a possible target for action, following an one per cent pay offer by the BBC.
The statement says, among other things: “Both sides have accepted that there will be no movement from the current offer of one per cent this year, but the BBC is committed to ensuring that pay settlements during this licence fee period go some way to reflect the cost of living, as far as these factors allow.”
Further, in the section of the statement about redeployment, it is stated: “The BBC policy of ‘Looking inside the BBC first’ will be amended so that managers must look in the redeployment database first for suitably qualified candidates prior to posting an ad internally (excluding posts on the agreed exceptions list).
“If there are no suitable candidates, the unions will be notified of all vacancies then advertised internally which will run for a minimum of seven days. In the event there are no suitable internal candidates following this process, managers can then advertise externally which will run for a minimum of seven days prior to any employment offers being made.”
