Equity has announced today (Monday 23 February) its boycott of the government’s survey in relation to BBC Charter renewal, calling it “unfit for purpose in either detail or scope”. The union has cited the survey’s complete absence of workforce consideration or representation, despite longstanding collective agreement arrangements with multiple trades unions which cover tens of thousands of BBC workers. Equity is also encouraging its 50,000 members to boycott the survey.
The Royal Charter is the constitutional basis for the BBC. It sets out the BBC’s objectives and purposes, as well as how it is governed and regulated.
Key criticisms of the survey are:
- The limited themes covered by questions.
- The aggregation of public responses by artificial intelligence software.
- The overly simplistic “agree or disagree” framing of questions.
- Word limits where free text boxes exist, with limits of 50, 250 or 350 words for responses, whilst many questions are almost 200 words long.
- Airbrushing of the workforce.
Is the government setting out to do a W1A-esque satire of the Charter Renewal process?
Paul Fleming, Equity General Secretary
Despite the boycott, we are actively engaged with other Charter renewal activity, including sharing with DCMS a formal written submission covering the union’s policy proposals for the BBC – most of which sit outside the scope of the survey – as well as meeting with DCMS officials, BBC representatives and third parties.
Paul W Fleming, Equity General Secretary, said:
“Is the government setting out to do a W1A-esque satire of the Charter Renewal process? Its aim may be to ensure the BBC is accountable, yet this survey seems designed to actively avoid finding out what people think about the broadcaster and its future.
“Not only is it restrictive, blinkered, and unfit for purpose in both detail and scope – it is contemptuous of the wide and varied BBC workforce, including directly employed, freelance and commissioned workers. Creative workers will be dismayed at the missed opportunity to really delve into the purpose, position and possibilities for the BBC. And the fact that responses may be processed using artificial intelligence only adds insult to injury.
“For these reasons, Equity is boycotting this survey, and we are encouraging our members to boycott it as well. There needs to be an expansive consultation into the future of our public service broadcaster which genuinely seeks and listens to the views of the public, including the workers whose careers depend on the BBC.”
Equity’s recommendations
Beyond the limitations of the survey, we intend to share with DCMS our key demands for a revitalised BBC. Chief among these is the recognition of trade unions as essential partners of the broadcaster to ensure good jobs – for employees as well as freelancers – to drive growth across the UK.
We are also asking for:
- A Workforce Covenant recognising that BBC commissioning and operational decisions must respond to the needs of the workforce as well as audiences, and imposing a legal duty to conduct workforce impact assessments and implement mitigation measures;
- Workforce representation on the BBC Board;
- A fair distribution of BBC investment across the nations and regions, starting with the Midlands;
- A substantial and guaranteed level of investment in audio drama series;
- A continuing or returning drama series that films for more than six months of the year in each of the UK’s Ofcom-defined reporting areas;
- And an enforceable commitment to abide by an ethical and rights-based approach to AI, including seeking artists’ agreement to any use of generative AI and consulting relevant unions in that regard.
Equity represents performers who work on BBC productions, including soap operas, dramas and audio dramas; also holding the collective agreement which lays out the pay, terms and conditions for those working on BBC-Equity contracts, including safety and harassment processes.
