Strikes called off at BBC TV News

Broadcasting unions BECTU and the NUJ agreed on 23 February to suspend industrial action at BBC TV News, following a last-minute offer by the employer to postpone a number of compulsory redundancies. The management also agreed to refer a separate dispute over new rotas to government conciliator ACAS.

The all-out strike had been scheduled for 26 February and would have been followed by three days of action by 100 staff in a technical department affected by the rota changes.

A week after the formal notice of strike action, the BBC was able to confirm that most of the compulsory redundancies had now been avoided, and that notice of dismissal would be lifted from other staff who had not secured resettlement positions elsewhere in the news department.

Those without new posts have until 1 May to find jobs, and the unions have warned that they would revert to taking strike action if these people are threatened with redundancy at any stage.

A joint statement released by BECTU general secretary Gerry Morrissey and NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said that they expected further negotiations to result in no redundancies. "The joint unions have indicated that, if necessary, they would consider industrial action at a later date over this matter, however we are hopeful that this will not now prove necessary," read the statement. "The readiness of both unions to take strike action to defend our members' position has again shown this can produce positive results."