Trade union leaders today delivered an ultimatum to BBC management - freeze all job losses or face a strike ballot.
Representatives of BBC employees across the country unanimously condemned director general Mark Thompson's plans to axe almost 4,000 jobs. They said the cuts were "outrageous [and] politically motivated" and would "fundamentally damage the BBC".
Leaders of Bectu, the National Union of Journalists and Amicus have called for a 90-day moratorium on the controversial plans aimed at saving £355m a year, and are demanding that no member of staff is made compulsorily redundant.
If senior management do not agree to the demands by April 4, then members of all three unions will be balloted for strike action.
Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, said the proposed job cuts were "a grotesque display of self-harm being inflicted across the whole of the BBC at the hands of an incompetent management".
Gerry Morrissey, Bectu's assistant general secretary, said Mr Thompson was "out of touch and had lost the confidence of his staff. If the BBC fails to consult properly and presses ahead with compulsory redundancies and privatisation, the unions will lead their members out of the door."
"There is a lot of anger at the damaging impact people feel these cuts will have," added Mr Dear. "We very much want to negotiate with the BBC but we cannot do so while the axe hangs over the heads of thousands of BBC staff. Unless they agree to a moratorium and no compulsory redundancies then we believe we will be left with no option."
In a four-point resolution unanimously agreed today, the three trade unions demanded a three-month moratorium "on any further attempts to progress the redundancies at any level, including attempts to identify volunteers".
They said any job losses must come through "natural wastage and voluntary redundancies with no right for the management to pick and choose who should go".
The unions' statement also called on the BBC to protect the pay and employment rights of any jobs that are outsourced, and called on the BBC to bring forward proposals for the future of its global news division, including the World Service and BBC World. Trade union leaders will meet BBC management tomorrow.
Mr Dear said BBC News staff were already stretched to the limit and could ill-afford to absorb further cuts. "Departments across the BBC already struggle to fill rotas - how will axing 20% of staff deliver better quality or value for money for licence fee payers? If BBC management won't stand up for staff and licence fee-payers - we will."
Bectu official Luke Crawley added: "Thompson's entire strategy is based on more pressure for staff who survive redundancy but they simply won't have the time or training to cover for the thousands of seats that will be empty if these cuts go through."
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