GRANADA & BBC PROMISE BUSINESS PLAN TALKS

3SIXTYMEDIA a television facilities operation jointly owned by Granada Media and the BBC have agreed to show negotiators its business forecasts after concerns were raised by unions regarding terms and conditions for staff.
BECTU is expecting to be given details of 3sixtymedia’s business plan at a meeting in September. All staff in 3sixtymedia will be drawn from the parent companies 300 from Granada and 84 from the BBC.
At the first meeting the shadow management team who will take over in November 1 confirmed that all staff would be covered by the TUPE regulations which provide some protection for terms and conditions when workers are transferred into new companies.
BECTU is urging the Minister Chris Smith to withhold the government permission that the BBC needs to participate in the venture until the management have allayed fears that staff could be cut soon after the company opens for business.
The BBC said that their staff would be able to remain in the BBC Pension scheme provided they were members at the point of transfer to 3sixtymedia.
Negotiators questioned whether the new company could support all the staff who would transfer and demanded that any redundancies should be handled before the transfer took place.
BECTU was particularly concerned about the possibility that the BBC producers whose programmes are thought to be factored in the new company’s business plan may not chose to use the studio and post production facilities on offer because they were based at Granada’s Quay Street site in Manchester.
In a letter to BBC Director-General Greg Dyke, the union called for 3sixtymedia to be given guarantees of production work from programme makers at the BBC’s Oxford Road centre which will stay open despite the closure of its two television studios and editing suites.