Broadcasting union Bectu has warned that the new chief executive of ITV will be inheriting a demoralised workforce “ground down” by cuts to jobs and programmes.
Current chief executive officer Charles Allen is to stand down early next year after two-and-a-half years in charge of the broadcaster.
Allen oversaw the creation of ITV plc through the merger of Granada and Carlton but has been accused by the union of “dumbing down” the station through reality shows and making thousands of people redundant.
Bectu estimates that since the ITV plc merger, Allen has made a figure of close to 4,000 workers redundant across the country.
Union supervisory official Sharon Elliott said: “Allen’s successor will inherit a demoralised workforce who have ground down by successive rounds of redundancies and cuts to programme budgets.
“We hope whoever succeeds him will reverse these policies and accept that the way to improve ITV’s position is to invest in programmes and in the staff that make them.”
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Bectu is also critical of the board’s decision to allow Allen to stay on until next year in order to pick up a pension at the age of 50, rumoured to be worth £500,000 a year.
The union claims this is at the same time management is considering reducing pension benefits for the rest of its workforce.
