BBC treated breakfast show staff with 'total contempt' over Salford move, say unions

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The BBC has treated its staff on BBC Breakfast with "total contempt" in its plans to move the programme from London to the corporation's new centre in Salford, journalism and media unions have said.

According to the National Union of Journalists, the move was not officially confirmed to staff until 1:00pm yesterday, despite reports on Tuesday of a potential shift to MediaCityUK .

Confirmation of the move for BBC Breakfast suggests 88 staff from the programme will be required to move to Salford. Existing plans to move 2,300 staff to the new BBC North have already been announced, with sport, future media and technology and parts of Radio 5 Live already scheduled to move.

Neither the NUJ nor BECTU were informed of the plans in advance and staff who were not on shift found out about the changes via the press, say the unions in a statement .

"The BBC has completely failed in its duty of care to its staff. This move will mean a major upheaval for the staff affected. To find out about it from the media, rather than their own managers, is completely unacceptable," says NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear in the statement.

Bectu general secretary adds in the statement that both unions will be seeking an "urgent meeting with BBC management" to find out more details of the move and ensure a consultation with staff is launched.