Bectu: 'Local news plan risks ITV jobs'

Trade union Bectu has warned the government that its local news plan fails to properly consider the position of around 600 staff currently working in ITV regional news teams.

In June, the Digital Britain report outlined plans to establish independently funded news consortia (IFNC) to provide a viable local news alternative on ITV1 to the BBC's coverage.

Pilot schemes for the new funding model, which would use the £130m licence fee underspend set aside for the Digital Switchover Help Scheme, are expected to commence next year in Scotland, Wales and England.

However, Bectu assistant general secretary Luke Crawley told The Guardian that the futures of all current ITV regional news employees have not been properly considered in the plans.

"It's very clear that some of these problems have not been considered by Ofcom and the DCMS [Department for Culture, Media and Sport] - we made that plain to Ofcom and [culture secretary] Ben Bradshaw," he explained.

"We said, 'What's going to happen to staff currently working, for example, in Leeds when the pilots are running?' They looked at us blankly, as if we were talking ancient Greek. It was pretty obvious that none of the policy-makers have given any thought to it - for us it looks like a dog's breakfast."

ITV has already expressed a desire for its existing regional news staff to be transferred over to any successor service. For this approach, Crawley said that the employees may have rights under the TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings, Protection of Employment), which protects the contracts of workers whose jobs are shifted to a new employer.

Crawley said that one potentially viable way to tackle the issue would be to use ITN as an overarching "master contractor" for all regional news workers under the IFNC approach.

Despite opposing the IFNC proposal in principle, Bectu has moved to back this approach as a way to guarantee stability for the workers.

"It's a serious solution which could give stability to the industry and to the provision of local news," said Crawley.

"What this is all about is trying to guarantee the plurality of local news, not a crazy experiment to develop a new model."