NUJ urges reform of BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporter scheme
Following a summit of LDR union members, the NUJ has raised its concerns including on inconsistent LDR pay rates and unacceptable story count levels, calling for urgent change to the scheme.
Publishers participating in the BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) are allowing widespread “mission creep” to satisfy their own demands for copy, with some failing to pay decent salaries to their Local Democracy Reporters (LDRs), despite receiving dedicated funding for each post from the Corporation.
These were conclusions from a summit of National Union of Journalists’ LDR members expressing concern that the scheme is being exploited by employers for their own ends, many of whom are effectively plugging shortfalls in both their staffing and finances at the expense of BBC licence fee payers and reporters themselves.
The NUJ has previously highlighted the invaluable reporting including on local corruption and elections by LDRs. At the union’s summit, reporters revealed that in some cases, management took the remit of the scheme seriously, paying adequately without unreasonable demands. However, the picture was variable and many LDRs complained of being shortchanged with their pay determined by an outmoded funding and pay mechanism.
The summit was held as the LDRS moves towards its second three-year retendering process next year and three years since the last BBC review of the scheme in 2021. Journalists were clear that the BBC must do more to audit the scheme’s operation inviting consultation from LDRs in efforts to ensure contractual terms are being properly met. In addition, LDRs voiced a need for a complete overhaul of the funding mechanism leading to existing unfairness in LDR pay.
Currently, LDR employers are only required to pay a minimum salary of £24,400 (£26,636 in London) and pass on an annual increase of only 1.5%. However, successive years of high inflation (beyond 11% in 2022 and 9% last year) and double digit increases in the national minimum wage, have shown this is no longer fit for purpose.
Freedom of Information responses to the NUJ show that the BBC currently funds each LDR role outside of London to the tune of £38,299 and £40,551 in London. All employment costs and expenses are expected to be covered within these amounts but despite this, there are significant differences in rates offered journalists carrying out the same work across different locations.
Employers are expected to pay as a minimum, their own salary levels if they are higher than the BBC set minimum. However, the NUJ has highlighted an existing lack of transparency by many LDRS suppliers on approaches to regional and local pay. In some cases, LDRs have been given only the 1.5% uplift in April when their newsroom colleagues have received higher annual pay increases. LDRs of similar experience can be paid about £5,000 more than colleagues elsewhere in the same group.
The summit agreed that as part of the retendering process the BBC should:
- Reset the differential between its LDR minimum pay rates and that of the NMW back to what it was when the scheme started in 2018.
- Reform the annual uplift mechanism to pay suppliers the RPI rate to a maximum of 5%.
- Stipulate that LDRs cannot be given less than the general pay increase enjoyed by their colleagues.
- Ensure that suppliers cannot withhold the annual increase in funding from the BBC to their LDRs.
- Require that local minimum pay rates of suppliers are transparent to their workforce so LDRs can be assured contractual arrangements involving public money are being adhered to.
Concern was also expressed by journalists over the working of the scheme in some workplaces, with multiple LDRs reporting their distinct and specialist reporting is increasingly under threat, as pressures from employers grow. Several LDRs have been asked to focus on wider reporting including international and broad political issues outwith the clearly defined remit of local democracy reporter roles.
The NUJ is increasingly concerned at reports of local managers ignoring contractual service levels, breaching story count levels originally agreed by publishers. LDRS contractual terms obtained by the NUJ show that supplier publishers are required to adhere to productivity levels of ‘a minimum of 30 and maximum of 40 Deliverables (unique stories) per month (excluding Advisory Notes) to the LDRS Content System’. Many LDRs said they were being asked to work well above this. In one case, an LDR reported regularly working over seven days in the week to meet both print and digital schedules, another averaging 60 stories a month instead of the maximum 40, and another relaying they were expected to produce enough stories in three weeks as four, if they had a week off on holiday. One reported pitching three stories daily but informed they had to find five.
Some regional managers were also being prescriptive about the nature of stories they wanted on a spreadsheet and individuals could be pressed to do “in-person” articles that were of little value to other partner media companies who received the same copy. LDRs said strong stories outside of their employer’s core area could remain unpublished for days because it was not a priority for the host company.
Summit attendees shared that their use as substitute reporters combined with breaches to story count levels has had a stark impact on their mental health, with worries of burnout. Described by one LDR as being on the “digital hamster wheel”, the NUJ is calling for urgent reform to avoid a loss of LDRs and long-term harm to the scheme.
Chris Morley, Northern & Midlands Senior Organiser, said:
“The number of LDR members at our summit and their geographical and employer spread meant this was a representative snapshot of what is happening on the ground in the LDRS.
“It was tangible that many LDRs felt they were being unreasonably pushed around to do things that were of dubious relevance to the LDRS and its original brief. There was frustration that publishers were seeking to extract more and more from them to the obvious detriment to the founding principles of the scheme and other partners of the service.
“Our members feel the BBC is not doing enough to keep its contractual obligations adhered to and in reality are presiding over a laissez faire, permissive regime where the boundaries are being constantly pushed to the expense of the core duty to provide unique content public interest journalism.
“The up-coming retendering process is a golden opportunity for the BBC to reset the service to solve the pay anomalies for LDRs and to make sure the journalistic success of the scheme is not tarnished by any selfish opportunism of suppliers.”