BBC staff go on 24-hour strike

BBC journalists have went on a day-long strike over compulsory redundancies across the corporation including BBC Scotland, BBC World and BBC’s Asian Network.

The industrial action organized by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has been launched by “angry and frustrated” journalists in a bid to defend their jobs.

“NUJ members across the BBC are taking action to defend jobs and quality journalism at the corporation,” NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet said.

“Instead of making sure that the redeployment process works properly in all areas of the BBC, managers are prepared to waste public money on needless redundancies and sacrifice the livelihoods of experienced and talented journalists, at the same time as advertising other jobs externally,” Stanistreet added.

NUJ has called on the corporation to halt the redundancies for six months to open space for negotiations but the union said the BBC “has failed to engage meaningfully in attempts to resolve this dispute” that amounts to an “abdication of responsibility for a public service broadcaster”.

NUJ said the new cutbacks mean an extra 2,000 job losses following cuts of 7,000 staff at the corporation since 2004.

The strike, which is expected to cause disruptions in the BBC broadcasts, will continue until midnight on Monday.