Another chance to see Rod Stewart

The BBC unions have been invited to pay talks with the Director General, Lord Hall, on Friday at 9am, in a bid to avert the strike planned for next Wednesday, which coincides with the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. 

Interestingly, only yesterday, senior non-executive director Dame Fiona Reynolds revealed to MPs that she'd been pressing management for regular reporting of a "Key Performance Indicator" on staff engagement with the changes ahead. She might try this...

Second thoughts

Former BBC HR Director Lucy Adams has been reflecting on leadership and trust, on her blog. The whole thing is worth a read, but Beeboids will enjoy these bits, the first about emails sent to all staff.....

One day at the BBC, I got a call from a guy in News who wanted to be helpful by explaining to me that “my emails were crap” and I should “get someone else to write them for me”. I was slightly taken aback as this was precisely what I had done. My emails were usually written with several other people – people in HR, people in Legal, people in the press team and people in Internal Communications. As I re-read the most recent communications I realised with dismay that he was right. My emails were crap. They seemed pompous and sterile, lacking any humanity or humility. I had adopted the royal Executive “We” and, in an effort to be accurate, I had “lawyered-out” any personality.... 

During the period when we were trying to communicate the need to reform the BBC’s final salary pension scheme, the trade unions’ leaflets were so much more powerful than the corporate line. They created images of fat, overpaid BBC executives who cared little for the poorly paid BBC staffer who would suffer in old age. They produced caricatures of the Director General and his team with an almost pantomime villain quality. We talked about mortality rates and interest rate risks. During the severance scandal, the press had a field day with images of overpaid executives receiving enormous amounts of money. One entire page in the Daily Mail was devoted to my supposed obsession for designer labels and expensive handbags – despite me being a TopShop regular ! The corporate response tried to explain what we had been doing by talking about contractual entitlements and payback periods leading to savings of £20m a year. A futile attempt to combat emotion with analysis....

In every period of difficult news “Hunt the missing Exec” is a favourite pastime and yet this disappearing act damages their faith in us to do the right thing. One of the bravest leadership acts I’ve seen was Tim Davie who, on his first morning as Acting Director General of the BBC during the Savile crisis, went straight onto the Newsroom floor to meet with the journalists. Most senior managers would rather go and visit the staff in Gaza then make an appearance down there during a crisis. That one act earned him a huge amount of respect and trust....

In recent years the BBC started publishing all of the expense claims of its senior leaders. Whilst the press focused on the more luxurious claims – a bottle of champagne or a posh dinner – what annoyed the staff most was the smaller claims – the postage stamp or the cappuccino – by people who were on six-figure salaries. We’ve all seen these small abuses of privilege and some of us have been guilty of doing it; the demand for a good parking space, the slightly better stationery than everyone else, no hot desking for the Execs. It does us no favours and we come across as mean-spirited. You wouldn’t trust a mate who demanded petty privileges so why would you trust your leader ?..... 

So many of our HR policies [I don't think she's being BBC-specific here, but...]have been developed because someone did something bad once and a rule was developed to prevent anyone doing it ever again. We all have the “Stop Them” Policies and indeed hours of our time go into enforcing them. Think about your employment contract. This tells us how much we are going to be paid, the hours we are expected to work and the 30 policies that if breached, will result in us being fired. Hardly the opening gambit for a trusting relationship !

Stokers

I blow hot and cold about the NUJ. I left the union because its administration was appalling - all of a sudden it couldn't manage to take my subs by direct deduction from BBC salary, the way I'd joined as a trainee ten years earlier. On three occasions, it threatened to expel me for arrears, through pompous recorded delivery letters. On three occasions, I put them right - I'd made no change to my internal standing order, it was their failure - and they, in turn, assured me that all was fine. On the fourth occasion, I cancelled my membership.

I like the NUJ standing up for working journalists on a case by case basis. Their intelligent support for individuals pitted against the BBC machine is usually one of the best things you get from your subscription. 

Currently, however, I'm worried that they are behaving a tad hysterically. They had to make an uncomfortable apology to HR Director Lucy Adams last year, after equating a "claim" of "dirty tricks" with "evidence" of "dirty tricks". Now I'm worried that they - or members - may be briefing papers they should have no truck with, to keep the "bullying at the BBC" story stoked up, with claims, not evidence. I'd love to be assured that I'm wrong.

Declaration of interest: I worked with Mark Sandell at the BBC for more years than either of us care to remember; he was part of the Breakfast team when we launched 5Live Breakfast. He's a mate.

The Mail On Sunday has created a two-page spread around some less-than-half-truths, headlined "Another Bully at the BBC", and far too many other media organisations have lifted the story without seeking context. Mark is in the middle of what the BBC calls a "grievance procedure", with a range of complaints brought by one person. That one person didn't like the result of the first hearing, and has appealed. The appeal is in the process of being heard.

So, as the Mail rushes to judgement, let's look at another belter in their piece:

One well-placed source said: ‘Mr Sandell is someone who is known to have had a reputation for as long as he has been at the BBC. He was at 5 Live and other parts of the BBC and his reputation goes before him. 

‘There have been previous complaints [of bullying] against him.’ 

 It is not known if these claims have ever been investigated. 

Mark's reputation is that of an innovative programme-maker, with a real belief in encouraging teams, bringing on individuals, and getting to the heart of stories. You can't really investigate complaints of bullying if they haven't been made. Let's see where this story goes when the appeal is over, and assess what level of transgression emerges.

Sandwiched

Somewhere behind closed doors (is there a Vic Feather suite ?) in Broadcasting House, they're easing in to their seats for an uncomfortable BBC management/unions pay discussion.

On the table is a "final" offer of £800 or 1%, whichever is higher, for all on grades 2-11. On £30k it works out at 2.7%, and apparently means at least 2% for 70 per cent of staff.  If you're lucky enough to be on more than £60k (quite possible at Band 11) it'll be the first official rise since 2009/10. But RPI stands at 3.1%, and, if you work in Broadcasting House, you can't park - so train and tube fares are likely to rise by at least 4%.

The background is worse than that. Management have been playing hard ball with flat rate increases since 2009 - £450, £475, £450, £400. Over those years inflation ran at 2.0%, 4.1%, 4.1% and 2.5%. At the same time as that tough there-is-no-dosh stance, senior management were apparently able to get a "beyond contractual" settlement to go without even asking - cf Roly Keating, now repaid.  Some deals made eye-watering reading in the recent NAO report - and there's a chance they'll uncover more next month. There's also a suspicion now that, if you were senior enough and got into trouble, you could "resign" and still get a BBC wheelbarrow.

The unions have a ballot result in their back pocket. Will it remain embargoed ?

Hold or nudge ?

So there may yet be more movement in this year's BBC pay negotiations. Yesterday, the management side up its offer by £50 - to a flat rate increase of £650 for everyone earning under £60k. (This has been spun to the papers as adding £1.5m to the pay bill; but my farmyard maths says that requires 30,000 staff to be entitled - and the total headcount is supposed to be closer to 20,000). The BBC's operating surplus in 2010/11 was £483m, and £389m in 2011/12; someone, somewhere knows the figure for 2012/3.

Timing

BBC unions (NUJ, BECTU and Unite) are meeting management today, looking for movement on cuts, redundancies and pay. They'll take what they hear to a series of big meetings with members next week.

There's an emerging tendency to find money for problems; I cite an extra £5m to BBC Scotland for "content" in the run-up to the referendum and the Commonwealth Games. This represents a five per cent increase in Ken MacQuarrie's annual content budget, and, of course, may offer employment opportunities to those at risk of redundancy and improve morale - at least until the vote.

Participants at the BBC (internal) News Festival noted that Lord Hall was wearing red socks in his Q&A session earlier this week...

Rolling news

The twelve hour strike by BBC unions has started, but the news machine rolled on - through a repeat. BBC News at 1200 was hosted by Ben Brown and Sophie Long, throwing as first headline to her paramour Tim Willcox in Cyprus, but it was a recording of the 1100 output.  I miss Gavin Grey already.

The Radio 4 schedule has dropped The World At One, PM and The World Tonight. Shelagh Fogarty appeared as usual on Five Live at midday.

Increase your competitive advantage

Congratulations to all chums in BBC news management who have recently been acquiring new skills (the sort of tosh you get on Linkedin). Today's the day!  The joint union walk-out at noon should look interesting across the Entwistle Piazza (unless management put the revolving doors into maintenance). But the on-screen look of the BBC News channel and bulletins will be more interesting.

Much of the technology for tv news is now connected in transmission by software developed in Norway by Mosart. In what must be excused as Scanda-adspeak, Mosart is "making newscast a one-man show".  Here's more of the blurb...

The idea of the Mosart was conceived in 2002 at TV 2 Norway by enthusiastic and professional news directors, producers and editors, all of whom had a vision of simplifying the many tasks of controlling the production chain of a news broadcast, to improve the channel look and feel, de-risk the operation by eliminating operational errors, and offering the opportunity to control a news channel via one operator where appropriate, thereby reducing costs.

All fine and dandy, when the one operator is fully trained and experienced. Perhaps less so when it's a boss with a hurried spell of familiarisation...

Different tack

An entertaining innovation from the joint BBC unions for the next walk-out - a half-day, starting at noon on Thursday 28th March. This will discombobulate management, for whom Thursday has always been the new Friday - especially when Friday is a bank holiday. I can hear a few flight, villa and cottage cancellations being made. And, in finance, many more split shifts will need to be calculated when docking pay.

Bowl

The BBC unions are lodging a pay claim of inflation plus 3% - settlement, or more normally, imposition of the annual pay deal usually comes in August.  The NUJ, BECTU and Unite want the rise for all staff in pay grades 2 to 11, and the same across the board increase for all allowances and acting payments.

NUJ calculations say that BBC staff have suffered a 15 per cent pay cut over the past ten years, if you take inflation into account.  Average salaries at the BBC - last reported in April 2012 - are £37,100 for women, and £41,800 for men. Here's a site to make more comparisons...

Struck Part 3

Seth

The glittering line-up on Five Live continues. George Riley (in for Shelagh Fogarty) was followed by Seth Bennett, practically a body-double for Richard Bacon, then Adrian Goldberg arrived for Drive instead of Peter Allen.

Newsnight is another strike casualty, and is replaced by Brian Cox on why Size Matters. Stop sniggering at the back !

Struck Part 2

Five Live kept the meters moving mid-morning with Rachael Hodges instead of Victoria Derbyshire, introducing clips of weekend and sport interviews. That was followed by sports reporter George Riley, in for Shelagh Fogarty.

The News channel, post-Gavin Grey, relied on BBC World News presenter Komla Dumor - as Gavin was shuttled back to Television Centre for the One O'Clock News on BBC1.  This featured that favourite of many - the presenter abroad interviewing the correspondent abroad, for deep revelatory insights. On this occasion it was Jon Sopel grilling James Landale in Mumbai about David Cameron's visit. Both can claim they didn't cross a picket line. Later in the bulletin, outgoing Foreign Newsgathering boss Jon Williams was deployed to cover the BBC strike.

Struck

The robot cameras are running in at least tv one studio deep below Dr Evil's Volcano News Lair, and a scratch news programme is on air in place of BBC Breakfast. Gavin Grey has been wheeled out again, and ,with support from business reporter Sally Bundock, half hours are going out on BBC1.

On Radio 4, Today, The World At One, PM and The World Tonight have already been excised from the schedules, as a result of the 24 hour strike called by the National Union of Journalists, over compulsory redundancies. On Radio 5Live, Stephen Nolan stopped at midnight, and Up All Night was replaced by recorded programmes. At 6, Ian Payne joined Clare McDonnell instead of Nicky Campbell at the microphone. On the World Service, short news bulletins and recorded programmes replaced Newsday. On 6Music, where news is often read by journalists, Alan Dedicoat was on hand.  Moira Stewart was there as usual for the Chris Evans shows on Radio 2. .

In the "news where you are", there's no Good Morning Scotland. Radio Merseyside listeners report enjoying Radio Lancashire output. More titbits later.

The BBC2 schedules currently indicate a Newsnight, with Kirsty Wark, but one suspects that's no more than a hope.

Two stools

By my reckoning, the contingency planning at BBC News for the one-day strike this coming Monday called by the NUJ must be the most complicated ever.

In network tv news, various "suits" and trusties are required to keep studios alive - but now the pressure is doubled. The News Channel is still at Television Centre, whilst BBC World News is operating from new Broadcasting House. Two questions - are there enough middle managers to keep both going, and can enough of them cope with the new kit at BH ?

Meanwhile, the negotiations to find jobs - or deals -  for those threated with compulsory redundancies will continue up to the wire. Those still threatened with an unwanted exit in Scotland have come down to eight, from nine. In London, the management lead for this thankless task used to be Steve Mitchell; I suspect, as he himself moves to the exit, someone else now has the pleasure...

Holiday time

There's an entertaining half-term week ahead for BBC management. The NUJ are planning a national one-day strike on Monday 18th February, ratcheting up the stakes over possible compulsory redundancies. In Scotland, union officials say six new posts have been advertised externally, while nine staff face the exit.  The timing will disrupt various ski-ing and other holidays, as suits are called in to keep things going; for the striking workers, it's nicely added to a weekend. And, for the history books, it'll be the first time for pickets at Dr Evil's Volcano News Lair new Broadcasting House (phase 2).

The end of the week has been ear-marked for the publication of the (redacted) Pollard annexes. So marvel as executives pull together on Monday, and wonder how they ever managed to speak a civil word to each other on Friday.

Routine matter

The NUJ are ramping up for the arrival of Lord Hall as Director General of the BBC. Their current mandate for calling a strike (over compulsory redundancies) runs out in March. How they wish that might extend to 2 April - Tone's first day.

The union says there are worries about possible compulsory redundancies in Scotland (9 still to be settled), Newsbeat, Five Live, staff on the Big Screens, Asian Network and the World Service.  Currently, the BBC is advertising at least six jobs for journalists externally; presumably there are more only visible to insiders.

Meanwhile BBC HR supremo Lucy Adams will be organising another re-training course for her team of advisers (vacancies there, too - "never has there been a more exciting time to be in HR at the BBC"). The BBC has lost an industrial tribunal brought by the NUJ against the compulsory dismissal of  Russell Maddicks, a Latin American specialist at the Monitoring Service in Caversham, run by Dr Chris Westcott. The judgement notes that Russell's internal appeal against the sack, conducted by the Doctor (and, one presumes, an HR helper) "started without the claimant and his representative having all the documentation they had asked for. Rather than allow the claimant to present his argument he asked a series of questions. He undertook an investigation after the meeting had concluded without giving the claimant the opportunity of hearing what his investigation had revealed and responding. The fact the BBC routinely conducts appeals in that way it does not make it reasonable in the circumstances of this case".

Journalist jobs

As late as this week, five staff from the BBC Asian Network faced compulsory redundancy on December 31. Now, the BBC and NUJ have agreed that "commitments" have been met. This time the NUJ has a strike mandate in its pocket. 70.3% of those who voted (I can't find the the hard numbers) are ready to take strike action, if there are compulsory redundancies.

The spotlight now falls on BBC Scotland, where there were over 30 redundancies to resolve, and a meeting on Monday.

The last time the BBC unions called the troops to the barricades, things were different. It was over a "derisory" 1% pay offer, and the strike ballot threatened coverage of the Diamond Jubilee. Suddenly, without the results of the ballot being reported, there was a deal, and the unions "recognised very tough financial challenges".  They did, however, claim they'd got renewed commitments to avoid redundancies.

Load of ballots

If things weren't grim enough for Auntie, the NUJ is shaping up for a series of strike ballots over compulsory redundancies. The first will be at the Asian Network, with a result due by New Year's Eve; those who stay at the station also have to relocate out of Leicester. The NUJ leadership is pretty confident there'll also be ballots in the New Year over jobs cuts at BBC Scotland, BBC News and the World Service.

A nice in-tray for a new DG. Will it still be Tim Davie, acting, and now with added tie ?  I've got a small side bet that he'll lose the Tintin trim as well before the month is out. Hard to imagine a DG with "product" on their hair - unless, of course, it's to be a woman.

Quota quotes

Twitchy times ahead if you are a tv programme maker at the BBC. Unholy alliances are ranged against you. The big indies want to maintain growth in a recession, and used the Edinburgh TV Festival for the traditional, but shameless call for a further increase in the indie quota, which they now prefer to phrase as "a reduction in the protected levels of BBC production".

This sits well with some BBC Controllers, who see indies as cheaper, sharper, more directable - and more likely to buy them lunch. It sits well with a new cadre of BBC Executive Producers, who sit on top of these indies, giving them the benefit of their wisdom without financial or critical risk to their career path inside Auntie. It sits well with some BBC senior managers, as a way out of the DQF conundrums. Fewer BBC producers in tv and radio creates exponential savings - in HR, IT and training support, in care and career development, and in simple office space. It helps close White City, as well as Television Centre. It sits well with Tory MPs. Staff, unions, etc are nothing but trouble.

So far, the only voice raised in their defence is that of Pat Younge, Chief Creative Officer of BBC Vision,  "The attack isn't unexpected. I don't think in-house is the big threat to the BBC. I think we've got our challenges and I'm glad it's George [Entwistle] not me who's got to deal with them, but we'll get through. But this fixation on 'in-house is the problem' - there's no evidence that we're even more expensive [than independent productions].....I want to see George put creativity back at the heart of the BBC. Sometimes it feels like making programmes is an inconvenient obstacle to running the BBC."

You'll notice this makes no reference to scale or size. For tv and radio production across the UK, the reality is that the BBC and indies now have a shared interest in increasing casualisation of the industry....

Collective thinking

A thorough job interview tests candidates on the key competencies required in the role. Lord Patten and Diane Coyle clearly had this in mind in their two-hour sessions with would-be DGs. Here are the requirements on "change leadership".

• Candidates will have initiated and delivered the transformation of a business or a division 
• They will have an appetite for change and know the challenges of developing existing talent and building new capabilities

This seems to have delivered a question couched, roughly, as "Why has the BBC Executive been so frightened about taking on the unions ?"   Will this googly re-appear in the final interviews ?