BBC North West journalists vote for work to rule
NUJ members are making a stand about the damaging impact of job cuts on news output in the region.
As well as working with a significantly reduced workforce, staff at BBC North West are now expected to take on more and more technical duties previously carried out by skilled technical staff.
If allowed to continue, the quality of the regional news programmes will suffer and deteriorate, they say.
More than 97 per cent of NUJ members in the chapel voted in favour of industrial action. It follows the BBC’s decision to cut £25m from BBC England’s budget, leading to 450 job cuts cross England. The vast majority of journalists who work for BBC North West are NUJ members.
Paul Siegert, the NUJ’s national broadcasting organiser, said:
“This dispute is about workloads and maintaining quality and standards. We understand the BBC has limited funding and resources but we are asking that BBC managers, who in some cases have never carried out these duties, to listen to their staff who fulfil them out every single day.
“Twenty two staff have left in the past year or so and the remaining staff are being asked to do more, work harder and learn even more technical skills that have nothing to do with journalism. There are health and safety issues as a relatively small team are made to work harder and harder.
“The strain is already showing on them but, equally as important, it will soon start to show on what the public sees on their TVs. NUJ members care passionately about quality which is why they are taking industrial action to protect regional news now and for the future. If they don’t fight to protect quality and standards nobody else will.”