BBC strike in support of Hindi service staff called off

Two 24-hour strikes by BBC journalists scheduled for today and April 9 to protest against plans that would allegedly result in job cuts and outsourcing of editorial content of the Hindi, Urdu and Nepali services has been called off following talks between unions and the management.

The decision to go on strike was taken by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) on March 16, but protracted talks late into the night on Wednesday with the BBC management led to an agreement and a joint statement, hours before the strike was to begin.

The BBC, in a statement, said, "We can confirm that in this instance we expect that we can deal with the individuals involved through a combination of voluntary severance and redeployment such that there would not be a need for compulsory redundancies."

"However, the BBC has reiterated its position that it cannot guarantee that there will be no compulsory redundancies in the future. The BBC will continue to make every effort to find solutions through voluntary redundancy and redeployment," it added.