Post by Teddy Bear on Sept 2, 2010 18:08:35 GMT
Huge Pension Deficit of £1.5 billion and staff threatening a strike.
Do you think the BBC could have spent the money they invested renovating one studio, then building another, and bribing thousands of staff to move should have been put somewhere else?
Do you think the BBC could have spent the money they invested renovating one studio, then building another, and bribing thousands of staff to move should have been put somewhere else?
Ryder Cup television golf coverage in chaos as thousands of BBC workers vote for strike
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:48 PM on 2nd September 2010
One of the BBC's marquee sports events is under threat after thousands of journalists, technicians and other staff voted emphatically in favour of industrial action in a row over pensions.
Television and radio coverage of the Ryder Cup, golf's headline event in which Europe clashes with the USA over three days, will be hard hit by the strikes when the tournament starts on October 1.
The potential loss will come as a big blow to golf fans and to the BBC as a whole which has already lost a number of big sporting events, namely The Ashes, in recent years.
The corporation only won back the rights to show the Ryder Cup from Sky this year.
The event is staged bi-annually with the next month's event to be held at Celtic Manor in Newport, Wales, for the very first time.
The 2008 tournament, won by the USA for the first time since 1999, attracted nearly 1.2 million viewers on Sky Sports.
But the event is under threat after members of the National Union of Journalists and the technicians' union Bectu backed walkouts by more than 9-1 in protest at 'punitive' changes to the staff pension scheme.
Unions held back from naming strike dates so that talks can be held over the next two weeks to resolve the dispute and avert strikes.
BBC plans to cover the political party conference season have also been thrown into doubt, as has certain aspects of their breakfast television programming.
Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of Bectu, said: 'This is a significant mandate for strikes, which demonstrates how out of touch BBC executives are with their staff. We hope they will now come up with more realistic proposals, otherwise we will have no alternative but to call industrial action.'
Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, said: 'This is an unprecedented result in favour of strike action and a clear rejection of the BBC's proposals.
'We have agreed to give the BBC two weeks to come back with an improved offer or face a concerted campaign of industrial action.'
The threat of strikes follows a BBC announcement of plans to cap pensionable pay at 1 per cent from next April and revalue pensions at a lower level, which unions said effectively devalued pensions already earned.
BBC management said the changes were needed to try to tackle a huge pension deficit of more than £1.5 billion.
The NUJ circulated a leaflet to members headed 'pensions robbery' and said staff were angry, warning the changes would signal the end of the 'special relationship' they had with the corporation.
The leaflet said: 'A massive yes vote in the ballot will leave the BBC with no choice - they are going to have to revise their plans or face co-ordinated and determined industrial action by all the BBC unions.'
Unions said they wanted the BBC to come back to the negotiating table with a better offer that protected the value of pensions already earned.
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:48 PM on 2nd September 2010
One of the BBC's marquee sports events is under threat after thousands of journalists, technicians and other staff voted emphatically in favour of industrial action in a row over pensions.
Television and radio coverage of the Ryder Cup, golf's headline event in which Europe clashes with the USA over three days, will be hard hit by the strikes when the tournament starts on October 1.
The potential loss will come as a big blow to golf fans and to the BBC as a whole which has already lost a number of big sporting events, namely The Ashes, in recent years.
The corporation only won back the rights to show the Ryder Cup from Sky this year.
The event is staged bi-annually with the next month's event to be held at Celtic Manor in Newport, Wales, for the very first time.
The 2008 tournament, won by the USA for the first time since 1999, attracted nearly 1.2 million viewers on Sky Sports.
But the event is under threat after members of the National Union of Journalists and the technicians' union Bectu backed walkouts by more than 9-1 in protest at 'punitive' changes to the staff pension scheme.
Unions held back from naming strike dates so that talks can be held over the next two weeks to resolve the dispute and avert strikes.
BBC plans to cover the political party conference season have also been thrown into doubt, as has certain aspects of their breakfast television programming.
Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of Bectu, said: 'This is a significant mandate for strikes, which demonstrates how out of touch BBC executives are with their staff. We hope they will now come up with more realistic proposals, otherwise we will have no alternative but to call industrial action.'
Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, said: 'This is an unprecedented result in favour of strike action and a clear rejection of the BBC's proposals.
'We have agreed to give the BBC two weeks to come back with an improved offer or face a concerted campaign of industrial action.'
The threat of strikes follows a BBC announcement of plans to cap pensionable pay at 1 per cent from next April and revalue pensions at a lower level, which unions said effectively devalued pensions already earned.
BBC management said the changes were needed to try to tackle a huge pension deficit of more than £1.5 billion.
The NUJ circulated a leaflet to members headed 'pensions robbery' and said staff were angry, warning the changes would signal the end of the 'special relationship' they had with the corporation.
The leaflet said: 'A massive yes vote in the ballot will leave the BBC with no choice - they are going to have to revise their plans or face co-ordinated and determined industrial action by all the BBC unions.'
Unions said they wanted the BBC to come back to the negotiating table with a better offer that protected the value of pensions already earned.
