News 24 staff to protest over cuts

Journalists working for BBC News 24 are to take action next week in response to the corporation's impending job cuts.

Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) will comply with a strict "work-to-rule" policy from Monday as part of a protest against the 4,000 job losses, which were announced by Director-General Mark Thompson last month.

The policy will essentially see the staff "withdrawing goodwill" by refusing to work beyond contracted hours and taking full breaks, even if a major news event occurs.

"The BBC relies on the goodwill of thousands of members of staff on a daily basis," said Nick Dear, general secretary of the NUJ. "Given their contemptuous attitude to meaningful negotiations it is not surprising staff are refusing to co-operate with their plans and have run out of goodwill towards BBC managers."

The BBC said that it remained "confident" the channel's output would be unaffected by the action. "We're disappointed that the NUJ has sent out this instruction," said a spokeswoman. "However, we are confident we can maintain News 24's usual high quality service for our audience."