Flat-rate rise may settle Opera claim

BECTU members in English National Opera are due to vote on a flat-rate pay offer of £1,000 each.

Management presented the offer on the eve of a strike ballot, in which ENO members would have been asked to support industrial action as a means of improving a 3.0% rise already on the table. Strike ballot papers were due to go out on April 6.

A meeting of representatives which considered the new offer decided to put it straight to a consultative ballot of members, with a recommendation that they should vote to accept the deal, which is backdated to October 1 2004.

For most members the new pay offer represents an increase of at least 3.25%, with lower-paid staff receiving considerably higher percentage increases.

Ballot papers were due to be sent to members' homes by April 22 at the latest.