BBC offers 3% rise

BECTU and the NUJ are recommending that BBC members should accept a 3% pay offer.

BECTU is planning to run a postal ballot of BBC members in advance of the 1 August pay anniversary date. The decision to recommend the 3% offer came after separate meetings of BECTU and NUJ representatives studied details of a proposal which included improvements in conditions of service on top of the increase in basic pay.

A last minute proposal to include a £500 minimum increase aimed at lower-paid staff was instrumental in persuading the meetings to give the pay package a positive welcome.

The offer includes a promise to review the widely-criticised performance pay system, introduced in 1995, as well as a guarantee that most staff on fixed-term contracts would be given permanent jobs after three years' employment.

For BBC staff working in the World Service there are also proposals for quotas to increase the proportion of staff employed on permanent contracts - the management's response to repeated union complaints that foreign language staff were being systematically dumped when their fixed-term contracts expired.

This year's union pay claim demanded a rise substantially above inflation, currently 3.1%, based on the windfall funding increase that the BBC will receive over the next two years thanks to the new formula for licence fee increases.

Management, responding to the BECTU, NUJ, and AEEU claim at a meeting on 6 June, told union negotiators that the funding surplus could not all be spent on pay increases because much of the extra cash would have to be put aside to prepare for lean years later in the decade.

Concessions were however made by the BBC in response to the claim, including the guarantee that many fixed-term contract staff would be given permanent jobs after 3 years employment. Arrangements for extended redeployment for staff threatened with redundancy were extended until April 2001, with £2m being set aside to fund retraining.

Management also proposed a revision of the controversial appraisal and performance pay system, which would review all aspects of pay, grading and reward at the BBC, due to report by the end of January 2001.

For several years the unions have criticised the performance pay system, which they believe has lost the support of the majority of staff. Management have agreed that if a new system can be established by March 2001, pay increases to staff that year would, with few exceptions, be determined by the new arrangements.

Staff in BBC Worldwide Ltd and BBC Resources Ltd will not be covered by the review. Management representatives warned that changes in pay and conditions could be announced later this year in Resources Limited, the BBC's wholly-owned subsidiary which runs many technical facilities, and employs over 3,000 staff.

Another suggestion from management for the establishment of a working party on parental leave was accepted by the unions, but no progress was made on payment for leave introduced last year under European legislation.

Calls from unions for a £100 bonus for Christmas working, and a guaranteed meal break after 4 hours work, were both turned down.

BECTU's ballot of members is expected to start by June 26. The anniversary date for BBC pay increases is 1 August.