BBC and NUJ in war of words over effectiveness of 24-hour nationwide strike

The strike caused disruption across the schedules, with BBC Scotland, Radio Scotland, Radio Four and Five and BBC Alba all forced to cancel programmes.

Reporting Scotland and Newsnight Scotland and programmes on BBC Alba were cancelled or replaced with short bulletins - while the Today programme on Radio Four started an hour later than usual.

On Radio Scotland, the John Beattie programme was replaced by a pre-recorded show, as was Call Kaye, presented by Kaye Adams. Newsdrive, which normally airs between 4pm and 6pm, was also off the air.

Instead of half an hour of regional television news, BBC Scotland viewers saw three five-minute bulletins, presented by Stephen Duffy who specialises in jazz music, is a visiting music correspondent for the Fred MacAulay show and works in the marketing department for the Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Duffy, who lists his talents on the BBC website as "a natural ability to carry off a tweed suit" and "being nice", became the face of the BBC's Reporting Scotland.

On Radio Scotland, three-minute bulletins every hour replaced the usual programmes and listeners tuned in to hear Welsh news editor Hugh Owens reading the morning news.

On BBC Alba, news programmes An La, Aithris Na Maidne and Aithris a Sheasgair were also off the air.

BBC management and the NUJ are disputing how well the action was supported.

Lucy Adams, the BBC's director of business operations, said "six out of seven staff" was working yesterday with "all our services on air" and "limited changes to planned programming" with the BBC's 24 hour news channel remaining on air.

Michelle Stanistreet, the general secretary of the NUJ, said it was "absolutely ludicrous" to suggest such a high level of staffing, which she said was "completely untrue".

"The NUJ has several thousand members at the BBC and there have been only a handful of reports of people crossing the picket lines," said Stanistreet, who suggested BBC management was living in "fantasy land".

The strike followed an earlier 24-hour walkout on 15 July in protest at compulsory redundancies at the BBC World Service and BBC Monitoring, where the corporation is looking to axe 387 posts because of cuts in government funding.

Explaining his decision to work normally, BBC Radio 5 Live‘s Nicky Campbell said that having consulted colleagues he could not find anyone who supported the strike, and felt a responsibility to licence fee payers to come into work.

"I supported the pension strike and I supported this strike last time round [on July 15] but ultimately we have a responsibility to the people who pay us," said Campbell.

Picket lines were lightly staffed, with six people outside White City, the home of BBC Television, at lunchtime, and three at Broadcasting House, where the radio stations transmit from.

However, the mood outside the World Service's Bush House HQ – where the dispute is centred - was more defiant.

A 20-strong picket line held a giant sheet with the words, "BBC kills World Service". Martin Plaut, Africa editor at the World Service, said: "I'm furious to be on strike today. I'm really not happy at all. In all my time at the BBC – I joined in 1984 – I've never seen the BBC in this state."

The strike has been followed by an "indefinite" work to rule by NUJ members.

All broadcasting unions will meet with BBC management on 11 August to discuss the corporation's stance on redundancies in the light of further impending cuts as a result of director general Mark Thompson's Delivering Quality First initiative, which aims make cost savings of 20%, as the corporation facesa freeze on the price of the licence fee.

The strike, which began at midnight on Sunday, meant the Today show on Radio Four was forced to start at 7am - an hour later than normal, although presenters John Humphries and Sarah Montague did not join the strike.

BBC Radio 5 Live was also affected, playing pre-recorded programmes to replace its regular live programmes.

There may be further disruption to programmes today because journalists will not have had time to work on stories for the next day.

David Eyre, father of chapel at BBC Scotland, is quoted in The Scotsman as saying that journalists felt let down by the refusal of management to negotiate. "We feel very angry," he said. "We don't understand why the management has decided to do this."