BECTU FORCED TO RERUN BBC EXPENSES BALLOT

LAST month's ballot on a new BBC expenses policy is to be run again, say BECTU.
Red-faced union officials were forced to write to BBC management declaring that the ballot result had been annulled when they discovered that hundreds of members had not received their voting forms.
While administration staff at BECTU HQ are still busy amending the union's database, it is understood that the number of ‘missing votes’ could be as high as 1000. Consequently, the number of disenfranchised members could match or even exceed the 984 who returned their ballot forms in the first vote.
It was discovered that staff who were eligible to vote, but who had transferred from BBC Resources back to the main BBC at the beginning of April, had been inadvertently left out of the ballot. The problem came to light only after the ballot closed on May 4, when the union had already announced a decisive ten to one majority in favour of a compromise expenses proposal from management.
However, given the number of members excluded from the vote, union officials were left with no option other than to declare the result invalid and run a new ballot.
BECTU say that they will not begin a fresh ballot until the union is satisfied that all eligible members have been identified and duly lodged on the list of voters.
Officials expect that forms for the new ballot will be sent to the union members’ home addresses by June 11. (SP)