Staff and union leaders are meeting management to press for action after complaint of bullying successfully made against BBC Scotland’s head of news

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old



Union leaders and staff at BBC Scotland are considering industrial action in a dispute over the handling of grievance and bullying allegations against one of its most senior executives.

Union leaders are meeting BBC management on Friday to press for urgent action after the daughter of one of Scotland’s most famous politicians, the late Margo MacDonald, successfully made a complaint of bullying against BBC Scotland’s head of news and current affairs, John Boothman, the Guardian can reveal.

BBC staff and union leaders said the incident, which was raised with Tony Hall, the BBC director general, and Scottish party leaders, was the most serious in a long series of conflicts between Boothman and news and current affairs staff.

An internal BBC Scotland staff survey seen by the Guardian showed that only 19% of news and current affairs staff believed bullying complaints against their managers would have a “positive outcome”, 20% felt bullying would be fairly dealt with and 16% had confidence in Boothman’s decision-making.

Boothman was taped in February by Zoe MacDonald, an experienced BBC camerawoman, as he made a series of highly personal and critical remarks about her in a private conversation with a personnel manager.

Boothman and the HR executive, who is now leaving the BBC, had gone into a broadcasting gallery at the corporation’s Edinburgh studios for an apparently private conversation without realising the microphones were live.

MacDonald was in the next-door broadcasting gallery and overheard the discussion, which included criticism of other BBC staff, and recorded it on her mobile phone.

She took the incident to a grievance hearing which found against Boothman in early May, and has since been on long-term leave for stress. Boothman this week gave MacDonald a “fulsome” apology, BBC sources disclosed.

While Boothman is admired by some colleagues for his news judgment and political knowledge, BBC staff and union leaders say the incident has potentially explosive consequences.

They fear it may reignite long-running grievances among nationalists and pro-independence campaigners who believe the BBC’s reporting of last year’s referendum showed clear institutional bias against the yes campaign.

Alex Salmond repeatedly attacked the BBC’s coverage, and there was a mass demonstration outside BBC Scotland’s headquarters days before the referendum.

SNP MPs including Salmond and the Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, have been briefed about the latest incident by union leaders and are expected to write letters of concern about staff morale and stress levels.

Margo MacDonald, who died in April last year after a 40-year political career, was a prominent and widely admired nationalist. A former SNP MP who sat as an independent MSP at Holyrood, she was married to Jim Sillars, the former SNP deputy leader and MP.

Boothman is married to Susan Deacon, a former Labour minister and MSP, and is seen as closely aligned to Labour.

The BBC declined to comment on the dispute, stating: “It would be improper, and unfair on individual employees, for us to comment on internal staff matters – so we won’t do so.”

The National Union of Journalists was meeting Ken MacQuarrie, the controller of BBC Scotland, and Wendy Aslett, the BBC’s head of human resources for the nations, at BBC Scotland’s headquarters at Pacific Quay in Glasgow on Friday morning.

Paul Holleran, the NUJ’s Scottish organiser, told the Guardian that balloting union members for industrial action such as a work to rule was on the agenda if the BBC was unable to reassure staff that significant action was being taken, including moving Boothman from his current post.

“There were calls for industrial action at the last union chapel meeting and depending on the outcome of the talks then that’s something which will again be on the table,” he said.

Holleran said the latest BBC staff survey was the third in a row where morale in BBC Scotland’s newsroom was the lowest in the corporation. The NUJ commissioned a stress survey by the Health and Safety Executive which raised significant issues about stress levels among news and current affairs staff.



“It would be fair to say that that strength of feeling, certainly in the Glasgow and Edinburgh chapels, is that this is one of the most serious cases that they have ever come across, and it needs a serious solution,” he said.

Asked about the BBC Scotland staff survey and the political attacks on its journalism, a BBC spokesman said: “Journalism is a crucial part of the BBC’s output and we have made it clear in recent months that our news staff are both highly valued and have our full support.

“Senior BBC executives recently outlined very publicly some of the difficulties our reporting staff have faced during both the referendum and the general election – and offered unqualified support and praise for the work our reporting staff have done during two highly charged political campaigns.

“We are acutely aware that our staff, both in news and in all our other departments, are our key asset – and we will continue to work with them to ensure they feel motivated and valued.”