The management at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which saw thousands of employees on strike over job cuts, has asked unions for talks amid severe disruption of its TV and radio programmes, reports Xinhua.

BBC said some 38 percent of the staff joined the walkout Monday over plans to cut 3,780 jobs in the next three years. The unions put the figure at 55 percent.

The company's broadcasting union said up to 15,000 of the 27,000-strong work force were took part in the 24-hour strike. Unions have threatened further strikes unless "meaningful negotiations" are offered.

The unions said the job cuts and plans to privatise parts of the corporation were "savage" and would "decimate programmes [and] devalue the BBC".

Mark Thompson, BBC's director general who announced the job cuts in March said the staff trimming was necessary to prepare the corporation for a hi-tech future and invest more in programmes. He said BBC service offered Monday was "better than we thought".

"Clearly we're sorry that some services have been affected and licence fee payers have received a less good service from the BBC than they would expect," he said.

"All of our networks are on the air, the disruption has been less than we thought and over 60 percent of staff have turned up for work as normal."

A BBC statement added: "The BBC believes the best way forward is for unions to return to the table. We apologize to viewers and listeners for any disruption."

The BBC has offered to "talk" with and "consult" unions about the changes. But unions feel "consultations" give them little say - and are demanding to take part in "proper negotiations", without which they are planning a 48-hour strike on May 31.

National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear said: "We've dealt a major blow in the fight to save the BBC from Mark Thompson's savage cuts."

Thompson has said he would be "happy to listen to the unions and staff and discuss whether there are ways of mitigating that number (of job cuts)", but added that he would be "surprised if we could significantly shift that number".

In his views, the disruptions were a "price worth paying to secure a strong BBC in the long term".