BBC staff braced for details of new job cuts

The BBC is today expected to reveal details of which departments will be affected by plans to axe 1,500 jobs in a second wave of cuts.

News, children's programmes, drama and new media will be among those affected by the cuts which are aimed at achieving savingsof about ?200million. Membersof staff were braced for news of whether they will be affected by the redundancies.

Union leaders will meet this week to decide how to respond to the cuts, but have already warned that they will ballot staff for industrial action if there are any compulsory redundancies.

Some officials have warned that compulsory cuts would be inevitable because of the scale of the job losses being planned.

The BBC announced this month that 1,730 jobs are to go from finance, human resources, marketing, policy and legal departments.

Director-General Mark Thompson has said that projected savings from the cutbacks will total ?355million.