Staff at the BBC’s Asian Network are to hold a one-day strike over proposed staff cuts, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has announced.
The industrial action is due to take place on Wednesday 19 August and follows a silent protest on Wednesday and Thursday this week.
The broadcaster plans to cut one of its two Birmingham-based editor roles and move the popular Bobby Friction programme to London. That follows swingeing cuts to staff and budgets at the Asian Network, staff said.
The union also accused BBC management of threatening staff over plans to hold the silent protest this week.
“The strike is to demonstrate to the BBC how upset and angry we are at the proposals. The BBC keeps picking on the Asian Network. After axing half the staff in 2012 and halving its budget, we were promised the network would not be asked to make any more cuts,” said a member of staff on the Asian Network.
“The loss of an editor’s post will increase workload and exacerbate the problems of communication between editors and staff which already exist.”
Keith Murray, NUJ BBC rep, said: “After sacking half its staff three years ago, we were told no more savings would be needed from the network. Yet they’ve come back for more.
“It is a beacon of diversity in an organisation which remains predominantly white and middle class. This is true of the management structure at the Asian Network. Staff are stretched to the limit and they’ve had enough. When management threatened staff over plans for a silent protest, members felt forced into taking this action.”
The union said that, apart from The Archers, the Asian Network was the last remaining network radio output based in Birmingham, “leaving the Mailbox, the much-vaunted BBC facility, costing £2.14m a year, half-empty”.
It added that television programmes such as Coast, Countryfile, the Hairy Bikers, and the Radio 4 shows You and Yours, Farming Today, and Costing the Earth have all been moved from the Mailbox building in recent years.
A BBC spokesperson said: “One Asian Network programme is moving to London following a staff restructure, prompted by our ongoing efficiency savings. The station still broadcasts much of its output from Birmingham. We have conducted a thorough consultation process with the union over the one post that is closing so it is disappointing they have chosen to take this action.”
