BBC News Division To Cut 500 Jobs

BBC News is preparing to announce 500 more job losses, as part of its ongoing cost-cutting programme, and that industrial action could well follow.

Including new cuts to BBC Radio, the corporation is facing a total of between 550 and 600 redundancies.

In July, the corporation is set to announce that it will cut between 475 and 500 jobs from its News division, with a further 75 to 85 going from its radio operation in the UK (as opposed to the World Service, which broadcasts globally).

The cuts represent just over 6 per cent -- about one in 16 -- of the entire headcount in News, which currently employs around 8,000 people. The jobs will go over the next two years.

The announcement could easily herald another autumn of industrial unrest at the BBC, whose staff are highly unionised -- the two biggest unions there are the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union (Bectu). The unions have already said that the 2014 pay offer from the BBC -- a below-inflation 1 per cent, subject to a minimum of £390 per year for lower paid staff -- is ‘completely unacceptable’.

The huge job cuts could potentially sour relations between the unions and BBC director-general Tony Hall, who had placatory meetings with the unions when he took the helm over in 2013.