News IT staff ditched by BBCT sale

A quarter of all IT staff in BBC News are planned to be TUPE transferred out of the BBC if Technology is sold off.

At a meeting with BECTU this week (June 14) News management tabled a selection process intended to identify up to 22 staff who could be handed straight to the new owners of BBC Technology.

Most of the staff affected are expected to be linked with "non-broadcast-critical" desktop PCs. The other 75% of in-house News IT staff are being kept inside the BBC on the grounds that they support journalists and programmes with a need for immediate fixes when equipment goes wrong.

The information came after nearly six months of uncertainty since the BBCT sale was announced, coupled with transfers of IT staff out of News and Nations and Regions. Despite pressure from BECTU for a statement, management have been tight-lipped since then, and IT staff in the Natioins still don't know their fate.

News management indicated that their target was to give staff notice of a transfer by the end of July at the latest, although BECTU has not agreed to this timetable, nor to the principle of the transfer itself.

Managers at the meeting were unable to say who exactly had decided to hand News IT staff over to Technology's new owner, but claimed that the move was good for the department because it would secure 24/7 support of the News network for the first time, and would would generate efficiencies from which the whole BBC would benefit.

In detail, News plan to transfer:

• Almost all its Network and Servers team - 6 or 7 staff.
• 12 or 13 staff from 30 in 2nd Line Support
• 3 or 4 staff from the 14-strong support desk

Some details had not yet been finalised, said management, because discussions were still underway with Sports division, which has a high proportion of live programmes, and buys in IT support from News.

According to management, selection of staff in 2nd Line and the Support Desk would be made by firstly inviting volunteers, and then using the department's call logging system to establish which staff tended to work predominantly on desktop jobs, rather than broadcast critical fault-finding.

In the case of 2nd Line, where convergence of technology led to the merging of IT and engineering job descriptions last year, News said that the transferred staff would be drawn from those who had been in IT prior to the merger. No ex-engineers were to be affected.

Similarly, recently-recruited Broadcast Technology Assistants would not be transferred, even though their job descriptions contain both engineering and IT responsibilities. Management said this was because they were expected to work on broadcast-critical systems.

The News operation at Millbank will not be involved either, partly because there are very few non-broadcast PCs there.

BECTU expressed scepticism about the transfer plan, and pointed out that News was keeping all its most mission-critical IT staff in-house, suggesting that the management were anticipating problems with the new provider if Technology is sold off.

The union also asked for details of the savings News expected to achieve once the new owner took over 25% of its IT provision.

Further meetings are planned, with the next on June 22. Meanwhile, management will proceed with their plan to invite volunteers, although the union predicted that few, if any, would step forward.