Journalists at BBC Scotland could strike over compulsory redundancy plans, the National Union of Journalists announced today.
The NUJ has given the BBC notice it will ballot its members about possible industrial action in 14 days.
The BBC announced cuts in Scotland in December.
It wants to shed 24 jobs, as part of a £7.5m cost-cutting, but only seven staff have volunteered for redundancy – meaning 17 could be forced out.
A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC is continuing to work very hard to minimise compulsory redundancies in BBC Scotland and has been able to reduce the potential number to 17.
“We are trying to achieve this against a backdrop of the most severe economic climate in the UK, with many thousands of redundancies being announced every week in major companies.
“We have told staff that the BBC’s financial position was not immune from what is happening in the economy.
“We’re very aware at the moment that staff are rightly more concerned about jobs rather than pay and we continue to work very hard to avoid unnecessary compulsory redundancies.”
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