Newsnight staff will not co-operate with redundancies

Newsnight correspondents have written to the show's editor, Peter Barron, telling him they will not cooperate with compulsory job losses.

Newsnight correspondents have written to the show's editor, Peter Barron, telling him they will not cooperate with compulsory job losses.

In a letter signed by all 15 Newsnightjournalists, who have all been asked to reapply for their jobs said they would not complete draft CV forms or meet with him over plans to make two compulsory redundancies.

'We are writing to express our deep concern about your decision to press ahead with the compulsory redundancy process on Newsnight,' the letter said.

'We will not cooperate with it. We will not be filling out the draft CVs. Nor will any correspondent be meeting you or your team individually as part of the selection process.

'We remain opposed to the redundancies on the principle that it is you, yourself, who added to Newsnightstaff numbers during the 'value for money' period.'

The cuts are part of the third year of director general, Mark Thompson's 'value for money' savings. The BBC's TV news and newsgathering departments were told to axe 108 jobs with the number of compulsory redundancies currently thought to be down to around 10.

The two Newsnightjournalists will be told at the start of February with the BBC hoping to finalise these redundancies by the end of March.

The Newsnightletter also says that staff refuse to believe that the BBC could not solve the situation through redeployment or voluntary redundancy in another area.

'We note that some £546,000 in bonuses was paid to senior management this year… We strongly urge you to come forward with alternative proposals to avoid compulsory redundancies, in collaboration with BBC management.'

Signatories include political editor Martha Kearney, journalist Michael Crick, business correspondent Paul Mason, science editor Susan Watts, and diplomatic editor Mark Urban.

Presenters Jeremy Paxman and Kirsty Wark are not affected.

The National Union of Journalists will meet on 30 January to discuss the redundancies.

A BBC spokeswoman said: 'We would not comment on private correspondence.' She added: 'T he BBC is trying to put as much money as possible into its programmes and services through its Value for Money plans. A considerable amount has been achieved through working with union representatives. However, we always said that given the scale of the reductions, we could not provide any guarantee that we would be able to avoid compulsory redundancies.'