BBC Scotland staff have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action, but disruption to Christmas broadcasting could still be averted.

The National Union of Journalists said more than 70% of NUJ staff who voted are in favour of strike action, with more than 84% in favour of action short of a strike against controversial proposed cuts to staffing at the corporation north of the Border.

Following the results of the vote by more than 1200 staff in the union at the corporation's Pacific Quay base, Paul Holleran, Scottish organiser of the NUJ, said: "This is a powerful result showing the strength of feeling of the people in there about what is happening with redundancies and the management style.

"We are in the middle of intense negotiations with management over redeploying staff and we are looking for the Scottish management to do the right thing here as they have down in England where staff from the Asian Network have been redeployed."

In London, negotiations have focused on digital radio station Asian Network, which will lose around half of its staff as part of the BBC's cost-saving measures.

About five journalists faced compulsory redundancy that was due to affect them on December 31, but they will be redeployed or see another "satisfactory outcome" reached.

Some of BBC Scotland's most senior journalists are to leave the corporation by April, with around 10 jobs affected in total.

A BBC spokesman said: "We have met all our re-deployment commitments in a timetable agreed with the unions and we are continuing with our con-siderable efforts to avoid compulsory redundancies in other areas of the BBC."