Climax of hit BBC1 entertainment series and Sports Personality of the Year threatened by industrial action as unions ballot members
The final of hit BBC1 entertainment series Strictly Come Dancing and the Sports Personality of the Year awards could be hit by strike action over planned cuts at the BBC.
Corporation staff are being balloted over proposals to axe 2,000 jobs and change staff redundancy rights and payments for unpredictable working. If they vote for industrial action then screens could go black during two of the highlights of the BBC's December schedule.
The cuts were outlined earlier this month by director general Mark Thompson under his Delivering Quality First (DQF) initiative and have been greeted with anger by many staff in regional TV and radio programming and BBC News.
DQF is aiming to make total savings of �670m a year following last year's licence fee settlement which froze the BBC licence fee at �145.50 until 2017 and saw the corporation take on extra funding responsibilities including the BBC World Service.
But there has been much vocal opposition from staff to changes, with local broadcasting personnel launching a campaign against what they call the corporation's "Destroy Quality Forever" proposals.
There was a backlash recently at a series of workshops about so-called unpredictability allowances held for staff by the BBC's "transformation team". Many were angry at a prediction that there will be a 21% fall in salary for more junior staff over the next five years if the BBC freezes the unpredictability allowance.
The allowance compensates staff if they have to change their shifts at short notice, which often happens to journalists working in BBC News.
The BBC Trust has opened a public consultation about the DQF proposals but unions are angry that some elements may be implemented before the end of the consultation.
In response, the three major BBC unions, Bectu, the National Union of Journalists and Unite are balloting members within the next week. The ballots are due to close on 24 November and if a yes vote is returned then a 24-hour strike could happen as early as the beginning of December.
Commenting on the decision to run a formal ballot, Bectu general secretary Gerry Morrissey said:
"DQF threatens fundamental and far-reaching changes for all BBC staff; union officials are not prepared to negotiate with a gun to our heads.
"Without a change to the BBC's position, we are under no illusions that a vote for strike action will mark the start of a programme of industrial action which could affect the highlights of the BBC's autumn/winter schedule including the Strictly Come Dancing finals and the Sports Personality of the Year awards."
BBC News programmes were last hit by strike action in July when staff walked out over compulsory redundancies at the World Service and BBC Monitoring.
A BBC spokesperson said: "We are fully committed to a constructive dialogue with the unions about flexibility allowances and our pay and grading structure. However we are at the earliest stage of talking these proposals through with our staff and have not even begun formal consultation with the trade unions."
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/oct/25/strictly-come-dancing-bbc-strikes
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