BECTU claimed today that the BBC has shown a secret redundancies plan codenamed "Project Leo" to potential BBC Technology buyers "in a desperate bid to meet targets for price cuts."

The union has already informed the corporation that it plans to ballot members in BBC Technology for strike action over the upcoming sale.

We always knew there was a risk of staff being fired once the sale went through, but it's astonishing that the current management are not just making the bullets, but loading them into the new employer's gun", said BECTU official Luke Crawley.

BECTU says that the BBC informed them that the plans had been handed over to Accenture and Siemens, two bidders still in the race to buy both BBC Technology and an exclusive contract to provide the BBC's technology and broadcast services needs. However, the BBC would not reveal precisely what was in the plans because union officials refused to sign non-disclosure agreements on the grounds that "the purpose of discussing Project Leo was to give union members an opportunity to assess whether the price to them of keeping BBCT in-house was acceptable."