Labour leader Ed Miliband is expected to put forward plans to outlaw the exploitative use of zero-hour contracts.

 Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite says….

Zero-hours contracts create a throwaway workforce.

They form a one-way street, whereby employers bear no risk, avoiding sickness and holiday pay and overtime.

Victoria Derbyshire was conducting a phone-in asking what it is you like about Zero Hour Contracts.

Plenty of people do  like them, like the felxibility and how they fit in with their lifestyle.

One question raised though was how large multi-national organisations could justify using them…say Sports Direct for example in its shops.

Derbyshire read out a text raising that issue and then ironically immediately a caller came on (11:23) who described his position as a ‘casual’ or freelancer…but he said the difference between that and a ZHC was merely from a tax point of view and he was effectively on a ZHC.

He ‘worked’ for a large international organisation, the BBC, amongst other independent production companies who operate the same system.

He gets no sick pay and no training and if he is booked by the BBC for example, every wednesday for 3 months and refuses other work because of that, and then the BBC cancels he has lost out on other work.

He gets notice of work from say 3 months to 1 day…but the work can be cancelled the day before he is due to start.

The BBC apparently has no policy statement on just what the terms of these ‘contracts’ are and how they should operate.

He said there were thousands of people being employed in the same way by the BBC on a daily basis and it is the usual practice throughout the industry.

He says there is no duty of care to ensure the people on ZHC are treated decently….the BBC has no written policy that sets out their duty of care to its army of casuals.

The BBC, being the BBC, you might have thought would have such a policy, in triplicate.  You can see why the industry employs casuals due to the way production works but when people get no sick pay, holiday pay, no training, work cancelled with no pay the day before it begins  you might have thought there might be a case for some sort of fallback system of payment to compensate…a retention fee or similar.

Sure Ed Miliband is on the job.  If Lenny Henry can get the DG’s ear sure the Leader of the Opposition can as well and the BBC Trust will issue recomendations asap.

The BBC, perhaps somewhat disengenuously, says in response to a FOI request:

Dear Mr Count,

Apologies if our previous response was not clear enough.

I can confirm that your statement below is correct; the BBC does not employ any staff at all on zero hours contracts.

Yours sincerely,

The Information Policy and Compliance Team

BBC Information Policy and Compliance
BC2B6, Broadcast Centre
201 Wood Lane
London W12 7TP, UK

It seems the BBC prefers to call them ‘flexi-contracts’…it does seem to have some sort of policy:

 ‘The BBC does not employ staff on zero-hours contracts.  We offer staff minimum hours contracts which differ as they specify a minimum number of days or hours work individuals are contracted for. 
 
By way of background information, it may be helpful to add that minimum hours contracts are 
commonplace in broadcasting and other industries across the UK. They are used to help with temporary 
fluctuations in workload.  A person engaged on this basis is free to accept or refuse work at any time.’

Our policy says: 
BBC Guaranteed Minimum Work contracts (also known as ‘flexi contracts’) 

This contract is suitable when the requirement for the individual is for a defined number of days or hours over a limited period which are to be worked as the business requires     (e.g. fixed hours per week/month cannot be predicted or guaranteed).  The contract is simply a form of the BBC Fixed Term contract. 
Managers are required to indicate the realistic minimum number of hours/days which can

be predicted over the contracted period  e.g. 30 days per year.  Managers should review the minimum number of contracted  hours/days regularly to ensure that the employee is contracted to the appropriate minimum.

The employee may be asked to work additional hours or days above those stated in their contract,
however there is no obligation on the BBC to offer the additional hours or days or an obligation on the employee to work those offered. Any additional hours or days worked do not count towards contractual benefits, e.g. holiday or sickness accrual.

It says ‘guaranteed minimum work contract’ but that isn’t how the caller described the way the operation worked…offered work being cancelled, sometimes the day before it was due to commence.

Perhaps this is the answer….a guarantee of some days by the BBC but additional days have no such guarantee:

BBC Contracts of Employment Policy

The employee may be asked to work additional hours or days above those stated in their contract, however there is no obligation on the BBC to offer the additional hours or days or an obligation on the employee to work those offered. Any additional hours or days worked do not count towards contractual benefits, e.g. holiday or sickness accrual.

In theory a ‘Guaranteed Minimum Hour Contract’ isn’t a ‘Zero Hours Contract’…because at least you have a guaranteed number of hours in a fixed period….however there seems quite a bit of wriggle room for managers to change that making nothing certain for an employee…and there is that ‘appropriate minimum’…which could be zero hours in effect.

Presumably you get paid for those ‘guaranteed minimum’ days even if you don’t work them…but it didn’t sound like that was the case from the caller’s description.

So all is not entirely clear just how the BBC uses ‘casual’ staff…..but in essence there seems little difference between the BBC contracts and ZHCs……there would still be a lot of uncertainty for any BBC casual/freelancer and a wage that is unlikely to meet the ‘living wage’ criteria…and of course there is no other option in the choice of contract if you are in a position that means this is the only work you have.

‘Support the Taliban’

‘Islam Will Dominate The World…Osama is on his way’ ”Kill Gordon Brown’

Not a word from the Muslim Council of Britain about those insults on the BBC….and yet when the BBC makes a frontpage splash with this:

Wikipedia edit from government computer added Muslim insult

……they’re all over it:

Nasima Begum, a spokeswoman for the Muslim Council of Britain, told the BBC: “It is these types of attitudes that create an unnecessary climate of fear and hostility.

“It is shocking and cause for great concern that inflammatory comments like these should be sent from someone within the government.”

Remarkable that the BBC continues to make such a big story out of this……especially when it completely ignored C4’s ‘Dispatches’ programme ‘Undercover Mosque’ which revealed some pretty nasty thinking based on Islamic values.

The BBC instead preferred to spend a week, the same weeek Dispatches was broadcast, attacking Jade Goody for allegedly being racist on another C4 programme ‘Big Brother’…so can’t claim to be embarrassed about investigating other channel’s programmes.

A very good indication of the BBC’s priorities and how it hides really dangerous news (ala Rochdale)  in favour of hounding  ‘stupid white trash’  as Goody was proclaimed to be by the self righteous  on many a BBC programme dedicated to exposing the ignorance and prejudice of such people that week.

And in fact I can’t even find a BBC story on the vandalism of the war memorial with ‘Islam will dominate the world’ sprayed on it….nor indeed for the memorial in Burton sprayed with ‘Support the Taliban’.    There must be some I’m sure….all with expressions of sorrow and anger from the MCB.

The BBC is losing quite a few heavy weights these days….Mason, Flanders and now Paxman:

Jeremy Paxman to step down as presenter of Newsnight

Jeremy Paxman has decided to step down as the presenter of Newsnight, a position he has held with great distinction for 25 years.

He informed Tony Hall, the Director General, and James Harding, the Director of News and Current Affairs, of his decision last summer, but with the appointment of a new editor and following a difficult period for Newsnight, Jeremy generously agreed to stay to help the new team bed down.

Bit of a reshuffle going on elsewhere as well:

BBC News announces four senior appointments

BBC News has today announced four senior appointments which will strengthen the BBC’s news coverage, both internationally and at home.

Jon Sopel has been appointed as North America Editor. He replaces Mark Mardell, who will become the presenter of Radio 4’s The World This Weekend and also present The World At One on Fridays. Katya Adler has been appointed as Europe Editor, taking over from Gavin Hewitt. Ian Pannell becomes International Correspondent, in recognition of his award-winning coverage of global affairs.

Interesting they have actually replaced Mardell with a real person…a tub of lard, ala Roy Hattersley, would have done a similar job to Mardell….for a lot less money.

No sign of the Glee Club at Today being given a bit of a makeover though….Bowen might also  be usefully redeployed elsewhere….and then there’s Roger Harrabin.

Work in progress?

Busy morning on the BBC. Every effort made to debunk claims by Sir Andrew Green’s MigrationWatch (with Evan Davies joining in the fun and games), then a strange thought for the day that seemed to claim teachers were like Christ, and of course a item on how Labour might win the Newark by-election. Just a normal day through the prism of the BBC.

Heard Peter Allen talking (18:24) about how the US and German economies were doing so much better than ours….because, Allen tells us, they didn’t have ‘austerity’…the ‘big cuts’…..we may be improving here…but you know what, says Allen…not so much…nowhere near where we were in 2007…..em….wasn’t that just about to go bust in the biggest crash in history!!

Got his backside kicked by the guest, who knew what he was talking about.

Germany of course was never in the bad position that the UK was in in the first place because it didn’t spend vast amounts of money in the good times.

The US’s first solution didn’t work…that is the much vaunted stimulus…Plan B in UK talk.

What did work?….well for one thing it wasn’t shackled to the Euro Zone like the UK is…the Euro Zone just doesn’t make sense…one of the reasons Britain is doing so well is because it’s not in the Euro Zone…and of course there’s shale gas making their industry so much more low cost.

Allen deflated pretty quickly…..guess the new ‘current affairs’ brief from the BBC Trust to be relevant, significant and insightful might be targeted at him.

Or it could be directed at the BBC’s economics ‘expert’ Evan Davis who a couple of weeks ago thought that ‘since 2010’ (when all things bad began for the BBC) the tax regime had become very light touch and allowed companies to get away with murder…hence the tax gap ‘increasing’.

Once again a BBC talking head got his backside kicked….the real expert put him right…the tax regime is in fact harsher than ever…..and the tax gap isn’t ‘bigger’ as the economy is itself bigger. The tax gap has in fact gone down percentagewise.

The BBC does seem to make a determined effort to play down any economic good news…whether it’s employment or GDP growth or exports or consumer sales or house prices rising…..there’s always a downside.

Still I’m sure if the moribund Miliband gets in they’ll be just the same.

Here’s the spin:

BBC News highly regarded and trusted but needs to act to maintain reputation with audiences, BBC Trust review finds

Here’s the actual report:

Review of BBC Network News and Current Affairs

Here’s the Big Changes acoming your way:

As a result of its findings the Trust has set out a number of actions for the BBC Executive, including:

• Developing its online and mobile news provision so that it remains relevant for audiences in a rapidly-changing market;
• broadening the agenda and tone of BBC News to address audience concerns that it can sometimes feel ‘distant’ from their lives. This includes making more use of regional and local reporters on national network news, and making further progress in creating  a more diverse workforce both on and off air;
• Increasing the impact of its current affairs output, with  commissioning decisions  driven by the significance and relevance of the subject matter and the insight offered to audiences;
• Ensuring that a wider range of international stories are available to audiences in the UK, making better use of the scale of the BBC’s foreign newsgathering resources.

Sounds like they had a good meeting.  Lots of good wine, good food, bit o’gossip, tips on tax efficient pay scams..er…. schemes….and oh yes…better dream up a few worthy management targetty type things to make ’em look productive, on the ball and with it.

Do like that bit about ‘current affairs’……improve their impact by making them significant and relevant…along with some insight…..do they really need to be telling the journos to do that?

Sounds like not a lot is going to change.

I wonder why this review of BBC news and current affairs has been made available to the Public….shouldn’t it be under lock and key?  Have they not heard that all such reviews are ‘eyes only‘ to be shrouded in secrecy behind the veil of ‘For the uses of journalism, literature or art’?

I wonder what the difference is between this review of BBC journalism and that conducted by Malcolm Balen.  Maybe the BBC, in this age of austerity, decided it couldn’t afford to spend £300,000 covering up its mistakes….or perhaps it’s just because no Israelis get killed as a result of the journalism examined in this report.

The egregious ‘Hacked Off’ is trying to impose EU diktat upon the  Media..something that could well backfire upon the Hacked Off friendly BBC.

This is one of their slides from their presentation (Via Guido):

We all know that…and yet Labour and Hacked Off don’t seem to have a problem with the BBC dominating the Media scene.

Strange that they don’t mind such a right wing organisation (h/t Owen Jones) ruling the roost.

It’s small and short but poisonous:

Adie and Ruth – Adventure in the Blood

Ruth tells of her travels and then how her son follows in her footsteps…going on a journey they hadn’t realised the dangers of….going to Gaza.

The dangers of course being in a land infested with murderous terrorists and religious fanatics….or not.

The danger was the Jews.

Travelling in his boat to Gaza across the water, like Jesus, to bring salvation to the Palestinians Adie was suddenly surrounded by 8 Israeli gunships and then attacked….thrown to the ground by Israeli soldiers in full military attire (what no beach shorts and sandals?), they beat him up, dragged him in and imprisoned him for a week

Just another poison pill from the BBC about the awfully awful Israelis.

If you’d like a laugh there’s always Marx…Karl Marx this time, and the BBC’s ‘of the moment‘ meme:

The Future of Capitalism

Anne McElvoy talks to the social theorist Jeremy Rifkin who foresees the gradual decline of capitalism and the rise of a collaborative economy. As new technology enables greater sharing of goods and services, Rifkin argues that it provides a challenge to the market economy. The sociologist Saskia Sassen warns that the majority of people may not enjoy the fruits of this new world as increasing inequality, land evictions and complex financial systems lead to their expulsion from the economy. The Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng looks back at the history of international finance and how gold and war have shaped the economic order of today.

Jeremy Rifkind has a great theory…except he has never heard of the garden shed or garage in which individuals create new stuff that takes on the giants of industry….has he never heard of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates?  Rifkind’s theory?….Old hat idea using new technology….in other words nothing new to see here.

Saskia Sassen is tr’ffic value…..as dodgy as Delboy at his flypitching best….whatever you throw at her won’t throw her…she’s always got an answer…and it’s usuallly ‘well, what I’m saying may not be happening now…but just you wait…it’s coming….it’s on the curve….I’m right you know’

Kwasi Kwarteng was doing OK, mostly by not saying much, but ran into trouble when blaming 9/11 for the crash in 2008….I thought it was the dastardly Chinese trick of lending us back our money to buy more of their stuff and give them their/our money back which they could then lend to us so we could buy even more of their stuff ……and of course the Hand of Gordon.

Any BBC bias?…probably not other than the choice of subject, the end of Capitalism, which was a theme past its sell by date even in the 1930’s when we heard the same things being predicted, and now only kept alive by the BBC and Occupy (remember them)….I should take a leaf out of Sassen’s book and predict Capitalism may have looked down and out for a bit but it bounces back…check the ‘curve’.

The presenter, Anne McElvoy did do a good job and took issue with most of the ridiculous points…so she was quite busy.

And speaking of BBC journo’s doing their job…there’s this clip of one taking the Labour Shadow Home Affairs Minister, Angela Smith, to task (11:48)   for her, what can only be described as, bullshitting….the journo nailed her and saw right through the spin and doubletalk. It should be kept as an example of how to cope with lying, misleading and dissembling politicians….a classic for the College of Journalism.

Three cheers for Victoria Derbyshire!

And, while social media can make anyone into a journalist, citizen journalism has, to my mind, reinforced the value of the professional journalist. When there are so many voices out there, so many with hidden patrons and private axes to grind, so many confusing opinions for news, then there is something simply priceless about a voice you can trust.

That’ll be the BBC then.

Fate and copious amounts of public money has put the BBC in a dominant position in the media world..it aims to stay there…the adoring Public needs us…..says James Harding.

Professional journalists cannot expect to have the influence we once did, but, if we’re clever, if we’re innovative and if we’re trustworthy, we can earn it. This is because we live at a time when there is an unprecedented hunger for information and ideas……there has never been a greater need for original reporting, insightful analysis and challenging opinion. People making choices need information and intelligence. We need journalism. And, in Britain, we are extremely fortunate to have a boisterous, curious and courageous Press.

But I believe in journalism. I believe that journalism can enable democracy, improve society and empower the individual. When it comes to stories in the public interest, I generally believe that society has more to fear from secrecy than to gain from privacy.

I hold that Fleet Street is one of the best things about this country and the BBC is the best in the world at what it does. If either are inhibited or diminished, I think that both the British people lose out and Britain’s standing in the world falls. And so I worry when politicians and judges weigh in, either frequently or eagerly, on the behaviour of journalists and news organisations. At a time when our society needs curious, inquisitive journalism more than ever, I think we need to be extremely vigilant against encroachment on press freedom and freedom of expression.

The BBC has a team dedicated solely to harvesting User Generated Content and, in the short time I have been there, I have seen it transform the coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing, the street-fighting in Cairo, the political row over Tesco’s and Next’s employment practices, not to mention the recent weather.

The BBC must, if it is to be a public service broadcaster, deliver on its obligation in local news. I say this because there is what I consider to be a mistaken view that the BBC should rein in its local news coverage for fear of aggravating the economic woes facing local newspapers. We have a direct interest in the health of local newspapers and regional newsrooms. We thrive thanks to vibrant public debate and courtesy of the stories and ideas unearthed by our colleagues in rival news organisations. But, let me be clear, the problems facing the local newspaper industry are not the BBC’s fault.

I am acutely concerned by the pressures facing the local newspaper industry and we at the BBC will do anything to help. But the BBC’s primary responsibility must be to serve licence fee payers – and they want and are entitled to the best possible local news services we can deliver.

And, while social media can make anyone into a journalist, citizen journalism has, to my mind, reinforced the value of the professional journalist. When there are so many voices out there, so many with hidden patrons and private axes to grind, so many confusing opinions for news, then there is something simply priceless about a voice you can trust.

Which brings me, by some happy coincidence, to the BBC.

The power of the BBC lies not just in the 8,000 journalists who work for News and Current Affairs but in harnessing the 300 million people who use BBC news.

The real strength of the BBC comes down to one thing. We are trusted. Trust is our most prized asset – and the key to our future. It is rooted in the BBC’s uncompromising commitment to accuracy, impartiality, diversity of opinion and the decent treatment of people in the news. It requires us to guard jealously our independence. And it depends upon us striving, ceaselessly, to be fair, reliable and open to ideas. In what will be an ever noisier world, there is, I believe, a great future for the voice you can trust.

In this, WT Stead’s rallying cry, defining the ‘New Journalism’, holds true for the BBC as for all other journalists. “It is something to have an inspiring ideal, and it is well, to be reminded of the responsibilities that attend upon the power which has come to the journalist as an unexpected heritage from the decay and disappearance of the bishop and the noble.”