Freelances win recognition at BBC Resources

The past month has seen voluntary recognition agreements reached by the PCS civil servants’ union at the Electoral Commission and by broadcasting union BECTU for freelances at BBC Resources.

The BBC deal – which covers BBC Resources’ studio, outside broadcast and post-production departments – is being hailed by BECTU as the largest so far agreed for freelance workers.

Three other recognition deals, both covering members of the Unite general union, have recently been reached via the statutory process; these were for engineers at department store Harrods, staff at the College of Law, and employees of Xansa UK providing IT and change management services at the Boots plant in Nottingham. In the Xansa case, The Central Arbitration Committee ordered recognition without calling a ballot.