London action continues

Action continues in London Operations areas as acting talks with management break down.

At a meeting last week management effectively withdrew proposals previously tabled that included staff carrying out ERR (short term daily acting) for up to 50 days in a 12 month period with no compensation. The proposals also included a number of additional Supervisory level posts - however in general this did not increase the total number of posts in each section.

The union said carrying out ERR with no compensation was not acceptable to the membership, and in response management effectively withdrew their proposals. A full report of the meeting will be posted shortly.

In meantime industrial action continues in the following areas covered by the London Operations talks:

• Studios
• Post Production
• Graphics
• Technical Services
• Television and Radio OBs

The action is being carried out to oppose the implications of proposals made by London Operations last year which includes the introduction of unagreed local terms and conditions.

The action, which started in March of this year, consists of:

1. Travel to base at start time of duty and remain there unless Resources Ltd provide transport to and from the site or BBC location, at the BBC's expense. Not to accept any form of transport that requires you to incur expenditure.
2. Refuse to work any turn of duty in excess of 12 hours and take an 11 hour break between turns of duty.
3. Not to act up on a daily basis, that is not to do work for which you would normally receive ERR. This does not apply to work for which you receive ongoing acting pay.
4. When off-duty you should not accept instructions, schedules or changes from the BBC, whether communicated by telephone, email or text message.

Below is clarification of the implementation of these points applicable to ESPG members.

Travel time

Point a above in general refers to location work, rather than travelling between BBC buildings, as long as acceptable travelling time and facilities are provided for such travel, for example between Television Centre and Elstree.

Elstree Centre

In relation to point a and b above the Studios Working Time Agreement, applicable before March 2001, treated duties at Elstree as follows:

For the purposes of long day working payments, travelling time will be included in the calculation of duty time. However, in view of the complications created by differing travelling times for individuals to and from Elstree Centre the length of day for the purposes of the voluntary aspect of long day working applies only to duty times at Elstree Centre itself, and does not include travelling time. This applies to duties within Elstree Centre.

The union will continue to apply this formula on the understanding that travel claims to and from Elstree are dealt with in the same manner as before March 2001 - if this continues there is no requirement to report to base (ie Television Centre) at the start of duty when working at Elstree. This is applicable to ESPG members in Studios.

ERR

Point c above relates to all ERR (Extra Responsibility Payments) which attract daily payments. Acting which involves ongoing payments, usually of three months duration or above, is not included.

Areas outside of London Operations

The above relates to ESPG members covered by the London Operations talks - members in Broadcast Engineering and BNCS have not been balloted and therefore should work normally while taking care not to do any work normally done by colleagues in London Operations.