Busy week - Friday off ?

Despite the good work of Lord Patten, there will still be seething amongst the staff when formal details of executive pay and pay-offs are published in the BBC Annual Report tomorrow (Tuesday).   Indeed, the trainer-and-chinos-clad tacticians of the NUJ are hoping that the seething ensures a solid one-day strike on Friday.

Looking ahead, Today is due to be presented by Sarah Montague and Justin Webb - Sarah, Evan Davis and the recorded voice of John Humphrys helped management get a show out in the last strikes (on pensions) back in November.   The News Channel had to fall back on the services of crisis consultant Gavin Grey and Emma Crosby (now with Channel 5).  World Service had the vocal talent of Craig Oliver (now at No 10) on some bulletins.   At Newsnight, Paul Mason and Michael Crick attracted attention for appearing on picket lines.

This time the issue is compulsory redundancies.   Over the years, News as a division has largely managed to avoid them, by resettling staff under threat into other roles.  In theory, this should currently be even easier - News is a division of 8,000 (or 9,000), and with churn, you ought to be able to match cuts and vacancies.   However, someone has decided that the cuts at the BBC's language services and BBC Monitoring are so severe that a compulsory redundancies can't be avoided.  One person has gone from Bush House; three are in line to go at Caversham, and the NUJ expects more.

The management line - usually issued via staff magazine Ariel, and due Tuesday - will be interesting.  Patten will want to look tough, but hope that some backstage gavotte can avoid the second planned strike, on 29 July.