More than 2,000 ABC staff around Australia have walked off the job for a 24-hour strike, forcing ABC services across TV, radio and digital to use BBC World Service and repeat programming.
The ABC managing director, Hugh Marks, was defiant and said the ABC would not back down on staff demands, despite the severe disruption.
At 11am, the ABC News channel switched to broadcasting the BBC News channel as staff walked out in protest. The ABC News channel filled the schedule with repeats of Planet America and the National Press Club, but broadcast Question Time as normal.
Broadcasting great Fran Kelly told striking staff outside the broadcaster’s Ultimo headquarters in Sydney that some of her producers live in Wollongong or Newcastle because they can’t afford to live in Sydney, and have been in the same pay bracket for almost a decade.
“I’ve stayed because I love it, I’m committed to public broadcasting, which is why you’re all here,” the Radio National Hour presenter said.
“I’ve seen too many sensational journalists, sensational producers, leave, not because they want to, but because they had to … it’s not acceptable that you get stuck on a pay level you’re not able to live on.”
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailMarks has strongly refuted claims that ABC jobs are insecure, and claimed more than 90% were permanent and the average tenure of an employee was more than 10 years.
The protected industrial action has been taken by the journalists’ union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and the non-journalists’ Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), which represents staff in technology and control systems.
The ABC has lodged an application with the Fair Work Commission for assistance to resolve the bargaining dispute.
Triple J newsreader Jack James told Guardian Australia it was a “tough” decision to strike, but for a long time, his colleagues had felt like they were “treading water and trying to stay afloat” and many friends had left the organisation because they couldn’t afford to stay.
Late Night Live senior producer Catherine Zengerer said she was striking on behalf of younger colleagues who are on a short-term contracts and are too afraid to go on strike. Her colleague, the program’s host, David Marr, was one of the high-profile staff who donned union T-shirts and joined the strike.
Flagship news programs including television’s News Breakfast on Thursday, the 7pm news bulletins on Wednesday, 7.30 and all radio news programs from AM to PM will be replaced by the BBC World Service as staff take strike action for the first time in 20 years.
Staff were protesting what they said was a low pay offer which put them behind inflation, work conditions and the broadcaster’s refusal to rule out replacing journalists with artificial intelligence.
“Obviously, when our staff are not available, we are going to be severely impacted,” Marks told ABC Sydney Radio earlier on Wednesday. “We will do our best to ensure that obviously, the audiences have got access to information.
Marks apologised to audiences for the disruption and revealed that there may be a trigger for staff to return to work after he changed the definition of emergency broadcasting at the 11th hour to include more than fires, floods, cyclones and natural events.
Exemptions were put in place to ensure emergency broadcasting continues, as ex-Tropical Cyclone Narelle continued its path around the north-west of the country.
Marks said if there was a matter of national or international importance he would call on staff to break their strike action and come into work.
The chief executive of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, Erin Madeley, said staff were already committed to returning to work if there was a major event that put audiences at risk, and she queried what he was able to change overnight.
Unions argued that the offer of a 10% total pay rise over three years – 3.5% in the first year and 3.25% in the second and third years was too low and failed to address concerns about the staff appraisal process, career progression, night shift penalty rates and reproductive health leave.
In January Australia’s annual inflation rate was 3.8%.
Marks said staff costs were 60% of the ABC budget and any increase would mean job cuts. He denied that the offer was below inflation because he said the last-minute offer of a $1,000 sweetener put staff ahead of inflation at 4.4%.
The managing director was critical of the enterprise bargaining process and alleged that the union had not moved its position in nine months.
“I’m finding it very difficult to deal with an organisation that I can’t wrestle into an agreement,” he said. “And when we’ve got agreement, it then disappears under my feet.”
Madeley said it was not true to say the union had stonewalled for the last nine months. “There’s been considerable movement across a vast area of issues,” she told ABC Radio Sydney.
MEAA’s deputy chief executive, Adam Portelli, criticised the way Marks spoke about staff demands on ABC radio earlier. “And those of you who heard the remarks of Hugh Marks this morning know that the company has not treated any of you with anything close to respect,” he told the Melbourne rally.
