Thompson commits to more talks but sticks to position

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 03-Jun-05, 11:00

LONDON - BBC director-general Mark Thompson has agreed to meet union leaders next week in an attempt to avert further strikes by BBC workers, but has said the offer of a one-year freeze on compulsory redundancies is final.

Thompson wrote to leaders of Bectu, the National Union of Journalists and Amicus yesterday, offering to clarify concerns they have raised about the BBC's cost-saving programme, which will cut 3,780 jobs.

Responding to the news, NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: "We are pleased to hear that Mr Thompson is willing to get round the table again. We hope that this will result in some real negotiations about the scale and impact of any cuts."

But with Thompson holding to last week's negotiating position, there is still the possibility that the talks will break down, leading to further strikes.

"Unfortunately, we simply do not have any further movement to make on the offer we tabled at Acas and to suggest otherwise would be disingenuous," Thompson wrote.

The offer, made last week during talks at arbitration body Acas, was rejected by the unions on Tuesday saying it "had not gone far enough to avoid compulsory redundancies".

The offer consisted of a freeze on compulsory redundancies until July 1 2006, with a review in two years to see if reinvestment in content areas can mitigate the net job losses. The BBC also committed not to sell BBC resources before June 2007 and to "ensure people and HR issues are a top priority" in the upcoming sale of BBC Broadcast.

Last week, the BBC shortlisted four bidders for BBC Broadcast, including Apax Partners, where former director-general Greg Dyke is an adviser, and French manufacturing company Thomson/Technicolor.

A two-day strike that had been planned for May 31 and June 1 was cancelled following the Acas talks. It had been expected to be supported by up to 10,000 members of staff, including top BBC presenters Natasha Kaplinsky, Jeremy Paxman, Jeremy Vine and Fiona Bruce, who did not cross picket lines on May 23's one-day strike.

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