BBC strikes halted for now

Union leaders have called off next week's strike at the BBC after director general Mark Thompson stepped in personally with a new deal over job cuts.

Their decision follows more than 20 hours of talks held by conciliation service Acas, including a four-hour meeting with Mr Thompson which began at 2am.

BBC chiefs offered a major concession by pledging to delay the privatisation of BBC Resources, which employs some 1,200 staff, for at least two years.

They also offered new assurances that pension rights and conditions of employment will be retained for 1,100 workers when BBC Broadcast, which provides technical services, is privatised this summer.

And in a significant concession over the main issue of some 4,000 job cuts across the BBC, bosses have promised there will be no compulsory redundancies for the next 12 months. There had originally been plans for forced job cuts from November.

But while Bectu, the NUJ and Amicus agreed to call off next week's 48-hour walkouts, they are refusing to recommend the new deal when it is put to representatives on Tuesday.

Bectu general secretary Gerry Morrissey said: "We have gained an improved offer which makes significant concessions on privatisation but falls short of our demands on job cuts. We are not recommending it but we have agreed as a gesture of goodwill to suspend next week's strikes."

BBC head of human resources Stephen Dando said an opportunity to resolve the dispute, which caused a walkout on Monday, was now in sight.