18th May 1999

Mr Gerry Morrisey
Assistant General Secretary
BECTU
111 Wardour Street
London W1V 4AY

Dear Gerry

1999 PAY NEGOTIATIONS

Thank you for your letter of 17th May 1999 outlining the joint trade unions' position.

I thought it would be helpful if I summarised the BBC's final position on all the issues you raised as part of your pay clam

Pay

I confirm that the BBC is offering a 2.6% standard increase with a minimum increase of £500 for full time staff.

All associated allowances will increase by 2.6% from lst August 1999. This means that London Weighting would increase to £2,670 p.a. For staff on Days conditions, UPA1 would increase to £1,900 p.a. and UPA2 to £3,800 p.a. For staff on Hours conditions for whom UPA is paid as a percentage of salary, their allowance will rise in line with their salary increase.

The BBC remains committed to rewarding outstanding individual performance and therefore performance pay awards and bonuses will be made, as appropriate, in addition to the 2.6% increase.

As agreed at ACAS last year, the salary range maxima and minima will be increased by the standard increase (2.6%) from 1st August 1999.

Fixed Term Contracts

The BBC agrees to Directorate level discussions on. fixed term contracts and the unions' associated concerns on the application of the Towers Perrirt grading system to fixed term staff. We note that you expect these talks to be completed by December 1999.

Resources Ltd

It remains the BBC's firmly held view that the issue of collective bargaining in Resources Ltd is not an appropriate matter for discussion as part of the national pay talks, as it relates solely to one Directorate and covers issues which are wholly separate from the BBC's pay negotiations, However, in response to your concerns regarding timescales, we are prepared to make a commitment that the Resources Management Team will begin discussions with the unions about how it proposes to handle devolved bargaining in Resources Ltd. before the start of next year' s pay rounds This commitment is in addition to all those made at ACAS last year.

Job Security

It is impossible for the BBC to guarantee that there will be no redundancies. However, the BBC fully recognises that job security and employability are important issues. Last year we made additional budgetary provision to help encourage and support Directorate re-training initiatives in situations where jobs were at risk as a result of the introduction of new technology or new working practices. The Directorates have made positive use of these funds and I am pleased to announce that we are going to set aside a further £2m this year for re-training initiatives plus £3m for multimedia training. This money is in addition to the 2.5% of the paybill we already commit annually to training and development.

We have also agreed to extend, until 31st December 2000, the arrangement whereby people facing compulsory redundancy have 5 months to seek retraining and redeployment opportunities, in situations where selection criteria are applied.

Sick Pay

We believe the BBCs existing sick pay arrangements work well and any perceived inconsistency of treatment probably stems from situations where managers exercise discretion allowing sick pay to continue beyond the limits laid down in the Agreed Statement. However, as a result of the comments made by the unions, the BBC will issue a set of principles ('BBC Sickness Absence - The Principles On Which Management Discretion Should Be Applied') to support the advice already contained within the Managers Guideline: K3: Sickness Absence.

Unsociable Working

The BBC does not feel it appropriate to reintroduce allowances for weekend and bank holiday working. In keeping with the rest of the broadcasting industry the BBC bought out these allowances in October 1991 when it gave a 5% increase to all staff. Current practice is in line with the rest of the broadcasting and media industry.

However, we are prepared to undertake a joint review of night work arid unsociable shift patterns at the Directorate level later in the year (the autumn) once the Working Time Regulations have bedded down.

Childcare Provision

As you know, since the HBC launched its pilot nursery schemes in Glasgow and Cardiff, the Inland Revenue has unfortunately decided to take a more stringent approach to the taxation of childcare provision. The BBC recognises that childcare provision is an important issue and hence it has been working for some Tine on a new arrangement which it has recently launched at Acton. Depending on the success of the Acton scheme, and. on the assumption it receives Inland Revenue approval, we will look at the viability of extending the arrangement to other areas.

Pensions

I confirm that the preferential discount arrangements have been extended until 31st December 2000.

We hope that when you put our offer out neutrally to your members, staff will recognise that the BBC's position is fair and reasonable taking into account the Licence Fee Review, the BBC's ability to pay, its competitive market position and the falling inflation rate (RPI is currently 1.6%).

Yours sincerely

Margaret Salmon