BBC Highland reporters to boycott redundancy interviews

BBC journalists in the Highlands are to boycott interviews being held by their bosses aimed at deciding which of them will be axed.

• Four BBC journalists based in the Highlands have refused to attend interviews to decide which of them will lose their jobs

• Broadcaster intends to cut one of the four posts as part of cost-cutting measures

The interviews are due to be held tomorrow in Inverness, after which management would decide which of the four senior journalists will be made redundant.

At the end of August, BBC management announced that two of the four senior journalists based at Inverness would lose their jobs, as part of what the BBC calls “Delivering Quality First”.

However, following a campaign by the journalists and supported by local politicians, who claimed the quality of service in the Highlands would be severely damaged, bosses conceded they would now seek one redundancy.

They claimed it was because someone “elsewhere in the news operation” had applied for redundancy.

The journalists at the centre of the row have told management they won’t be attending the interviews today.

Iain MacDonald, spokesman for the National Union for Journalists in Inverness, said: “They have their own in-house name for these interviews. But essentially it means the journalists will be interviewing for their own jobs.

“The only change is that one journalist will be sacked now, rather than two. We believe that, even with a mere twenty five per cent cut, as now proposed, the system will offer a much poorer service to the Highlands and Islands, at least in English.

“And that there is no need to make these cuts so fast, especially with the Commonwealth Games and the Independence Referendum on the horizon.

“We would be asked at these interviews to tell the panel of BBC managers how we would make this system work. We don’t believe it will. So we won’t be there.”

The union is also critical of what it regards as harassment of the journalists over the process.

Mr MacDonald added: “We have consistently made it clear we want no part of these interviews. Yet we have been handed a succession of deadlines by management to say that we would attend. Apart from not understanding that ‘no’ means ‘no’, these deadline periods went from being given three days to answer, to the last one being for twenty four hours.”

“The BBC may maintain that it’s giving us every opportunity to change our minds. We regard it as being intimidatory – and very stressful. And we are still boycotting the interviews.”

A BBC spokesman said: ““We’re having ongoing discussions with the NUJ about the loss of one job in the Inverness newsroom which is part of the overall BBC Scotland efficiency plan.”