Union warns BBC after phone-in row

The BBC faced fresh anger today when the main broadcasting union warned against targeting junior production staff over the competition phone-in crisis.

Bectu attacked the Corporation for “feigning” surprise that workers had not blown the whistle on the string of viewer deceptions.

The BBC has suspended all its phone-in competitions after discovering incidents involving Children In Need, Comic Relief and Sports Relief.

The Corporation’s Director-General, Mark Thompson, announced the move after describing the problem as “totally unacceptable”.

Union sources said today that up to 10 production staff were likely to be given a warning of disciplinary action in the next few days.

But it is thought that only one will be above the level of producer, leading to union fears that more junior workers will be criticised.

Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of Bectu, said today: “How can the BBC expect employees who have little or no job security to expose the activities of anyone else?

“This situation is of senior management’s making. We will strongly defend any of our members who are disciplined because the problem lies at the top.”

Bectu claimed there was reduced investment in staff training and a culture of short-term contracts at the BBC which had affected job security.

Meanwhile, the television company at the heart of the controversial Queen documentary which sparked the review of all BBC programming, insisted today that the row would have no financial impact on it at all.

In a bid to reassure its shareholders and investors, the independent company RDF said commissions from the BBC only accounted for 10% of its total revenues.

It said mistakes made by the company would not happen again and added that it was “confident” the BBC would resume working with it soon.