Some of ABC Radio National’s most experienced and highly regarded radio makers have been placed on a redundancy hit list as the station seeks to cut $1 million from its bottom line next year.

RN staff and the union representing them are dismayed that station management has decided to target individuals for forced redundancy rather than go through a voluntary process. There is also a broader concern about a shift away from specialist programs with high production values towards local radio-style content.

RN management plans to axe the radio drama department, cut the number of senior producers in the features department from five to two and reduce staff working on Fran Kelly’s top-rating Breakfast program. Up to 11 staff are expected to be made redundant.

Tom Morton, who recently left Radio National after two decades as a journalist and presenter, says he’s alarmed at the proposed cuts to the features unit. “You are losing people who represent a very large part of the intellectual capital and experience at Radio National,” he said. “It is potentially ripping the guts out of the whole culture of features, documentary making and drama.”

The features staffers who have been told they may be out of a job are: Sharon Davis, Jane Ulman, Sherre DeLys, Robyn Johnston and Brent Clough. All are in the station’s highest salary band for reporter/producers. Head of radio drama Anna Messariti’s role has also been made redundant.

Although not household names, Morton says those staff members who have been targeted are internationally recognised for their work and play a crucial role mentoring emerging journalists. Radio documentary maker Davis has won four Walkley Awards — more than anyone else at Radio National; Ulman has won more prizes at the Prix Italia — the world’s oldest and most prestigious radio festival — than anyone in the world.

“I know Mark Scott has a high regard for journalistic excellence,” Morton, now director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, told Crikey. “I think he’d be asking himself if the ABC wants to lose people of the calibre of Sharon Davis or Jane Ulman.”

Others on the redundancy hit list have a record of innovation and international reputations. DeLys, who was the founding executive producer of the Pool website, has also won international radio awards. Clough, who hosts the decomissioned Night Air program, has worked at the ABC for more than 20 years,  as has the WA-based Johnston.

“This has been a flawed process,” said Morton. “If RN really needs to lose staff — and so far the case hasn’t been made publicly why it does — it should be through a voluntary redundancy process.”

Crikey understands that staff members have written to ABC chairman Jim Spigelman and managing director Mark Scott to register complaints about the axing of radio drama and cuts to the features department.

One of the staff members in line for redundancy told Crikey: “The most senior, experienced people in the features unit will be out the door. We’re the highest paid so they are getting rid of us. All of us are highly skilled people and none of us knows if we will get jobs out of this.”

The RN veteran, who asked to remain anonymous, says the process has been handled “incredibly badly” by management: “We all feel like we have been badly misled.”

The Community and Public Sector Union is planning a public campaign against the cuts and has threatened to take the ABC to Fair Work Australia over a lack of consultation with staff.

Staff are also questioning the wisdom of management spending $55,000 on a radio drama and features conference, Radio Beyond Radio, held only days before it was announced the radio drama department would be closed.

Staff at the station’s highest-rating program, RN Breakfast, are also incensed about a proposal to cut its resources next year. As outlined in the recently released Project Sustainability Project report, RN Breakfast — which took on an extra half hour of programming this year with no added staff — is slated to lose one full-time producer in 2013.

“We are already the most productive show on the network,” an angry Breakfast insider told Crikey. “They don’t understand what we do because they’re not in here [early in the morning].”

Management hopes Breakfast can share more resources with Waleed Aly’s Drive program, which will pick up an extra staff member next year.

Not all staffers, it’s important to note, are unhappy with the change in direction. “It is commendable that someone is finally trying to tackle the huge work imbalance between the daily shows and features,” one current affairs producer said.

ABC RN manager Michael Mason told Crikey: “Of course we don’t want to lose staff but we’ve got to make the best decisions for the network.

“The draft schedule shows that next year 76% of programming will be original, which represents an extra 14% of original content for our audience. If you combine this with the increased specialisation on air this year with the additions of the Media Report, the Religion and Ethics Report, Download this Show, Common Knowledge and The Body Sphere, RN is well and truly delivering on its role as the network for intelligent audiences who want a deeper understanding of the world.”

He says consultation about the proposed cuts is ongoing and there would still be 21 staff in the features unit. Staff members in the highest salary band who are made redundant will also be able to apply for an equivalent position in the new creative audio unit.

Former RN veteran Peter Clarke says Mason should be congratulated for finally addressing the “weeping wound” that is the station’s budget. But he says he’s concerned about the loss of specialist arts content given there will be no standalone shows devoted to movies or books next year.