BBC meeting unions over job cuts

Mr Thompson says the cuts will save £355m a year

BBC director general Mark Thompson has met union negotiators from the NUJ, Bectu and Amicus over planned job cuts.

The NUJ said it could strike over 200 journalists, producers and technical staff facing compulsory redundancy.

The BBC plans to lose 3,780 posts over three years, but last June agreed to put compulsory redundancies on hold for a year after a 24-hour strike in May.

Mr Thompson said in December about 12% of the redundancies - 450 or so - were likely to be compulsory.

The NUJ said talks had reached agreement on savings including voluntary redundancies, but that the BBC was still insisting 200 jobs would be axed in areas including BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, as well as its news and factual and learning divisions.

General secretary Jeremy Dear said: "After months of tough and intensive negotiations across the whole of the BBC, many key issues have now been resolved.

"The BBC risk throwing all that progress away by their unreasonable insistence on compulsory redundancies."

Talks took place on Thursday and a statement on their progress was expected on Friday.

Before the meeting Amicus said it would ballot for a strike if the BBC insisted on compulsory redundancies.