BBC members ballot on pay

A ballot on this year's 3% BBC pay offer has begun, with a union recommendation to accept.

The postal ballot, run by independent company Electoral Reform Ballot Services, closes on July 10. If members accept the increase it should be paid in August pay packets.

On the day that ballot forms were mailed out to members employed by the BBC centrally, a separate ballot of members in BBC Worldwide on their 2.9% offer closed, with a 100% vote to accept. Worldwide conducts pay negotiations with unions on its own, as BBC Resources Ltd hopes to do from next year onwards.

For members covered by the main BBC offer, a letter from the union (see below), mailed out with the ballot papers, explains that although the headline increase is less than negotiators were hoping for, there are non-wage elements of the package offered by the BBC which will benefit members.

These include a guarantee for most staff on fixed-term contracts of a permanent job after three years, an improvement in dependants' leave, and a complete overhaul of the performance pay system and related grading and appraisal structures.

Lower-paid staff will see rises above 3% thanks to a minimum increase set at £500, which benefits anyone on less than £16,666 p.a.

Staff in Resources Ltd will be covered by the pay rise, although the company will not be participating in the review of the pay structure. Management have warned that they will be making company-specific proposals on new pay and conditions in Autumn, taking advantage of their incorporated status to break away from central BBC bargaining.

The BECTU ballot closes on July 10, and any members who have not received forms by June 29 should contact Owen Thomas at the ERBS on 020 8365 8909.

NUJ members are also due to be balloted by July 10, once again with a recommendation from their negotiators to accept.

TO: ALL BECTU MEMBERS IN THE BBC

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to give you details of this year's pay offer. Enclosed with this letter is ballot paper and an envelope you should complete the ballot paper and post it back immediately. The joint unions are recommending that you vote YES in this ballot, and this letter will explain why. Our claim, as well as other articles about this year's pay claim, can be found on the BECTU website at www.bectu.org.uk and there will be an article in Stage Screen and Radio.

Pay

The BBC has offered 3%, with £500 bottom loading. This means that anyone earning less that £16,666 will get a pay rise of more than 3%. The 3% will apply to all pay-related allowances, including UPA, night rates and the floors and roofs of the pay bands. The pay rise is not as significant as we would like but we believe that there are other aspects of the offer that make it worth voting yes.

As part of our claim we threatened to boycott appraisals because the present system of PRP was seen as unfair and divisive. Even those who have met or exceeded their targets still did not necessarily receive it. The BBC has responded with the offer of a joint working party with the unions covering pay, reward and benefits. This will conclude by 31st December, with the BBC tabling its proposals to the unions by 31st January, the intention being to conclude the negotiations by 31st March. Any PRP decisions for 1st August 2001 will be taken under the system in place following these negotiations. If, at the end of those talks on 31st March, the unions are unhappy about any new PRP system and believe it is no better than the old one then we will be carrying out our threat to ballot with the intention of boycotting appraisal interviews from April onwards. In any event we believe that these talks will bring about fundamental changes in the pay system and we will be targeting a return to the rate for the job and changes to the current wide pay bands.

Resources Ltd

The BBC were clear that Resources Ltd, although covered by this pay round, would not be part of future talks and would not be part of this review of pay and reward. Resources Ltd will be making its own proposals on terms and conditions in the autumn of this year.

Fixed Term Contracts

For many years now BECTU and the NUJ have been successfully pushing the BBC to make improvements for those on Fixed Term Contracts (FTC). First with the reduction from 10 years to 5 years on FTC before being allowed to join the final salary pension scheme and with the introduction of the money purchase scheme for those with less than five years service. As part of that campaign we got an agreement that after 5 years on FTC you should then be offered a Continuing Staff Contract. This latest proposal means that after three years on a FTC where the work is continuing for another year you should now be offered a staff contract and be allowed to join the final salary pension scheme.

For this change to be acceptable the BBC wants the right to issue a small number of longer Fixed Term Contracts of 3, 4 or 5 years for specific business reasons. These contracts would be advertised and issued as having no prospect at all of extension or renewal. It would not be the intention to use them in say, in a production department alongside staff on Continuing Contracts and Fixed Term Contracts of less than 3 years.

Last year the BBC offered to reduce the 5 years to 4 years, but not for World Service staff. The unions rejected the offer as unfair to our members there. This reduction from 5 to 3 will apply to all BBC staff including the World Service. Our main concern at WS has been the use and abuse of FTC under what is known as the Fresh Blood policy this has resulted in people being brought from overseas for a contract and then being terminated and having to return sometimes to hostile regimes. Those most directly affected by the Fresh Blood policy work in the Language Sections. The BBC has stated that the public commitment made by Mark Byford, (Director World Service) that 75% of staff in the World Service will be on a Continuing Contract by March 2001 will reduce the numbers on FTC. In order to address our concerns about the producers in the language sections they have tabled figures which we believe show that the numbers on staff contracts will rise from their present level to over 75% by May 2002 as they pass the three years on FTCs. They have also agreed to review these figures regularly with the unions and if we are not happy with the progress we can return to national level.

In our view this change means that the Fresh Blood policy should now be in retreat. Over the next two years there will be a large reduction in the number of producers and other staff on Fixed Term Contracts in the Language Services as well as in the rest of the BBC.

Time off for Dependants

Under the new legislation if an aged parent, relative or child at school is taken ill you can leave work to go and help them and you are only required to tell your employer as soon as is reasonably possible. Under the legislation this leave is unpaid. As a result of our claim the BBC have conceded that the existing ten days of Domestic Leave (available at the discretion of your manager, after you have taken all your annual leave) will be converted into ten days of paid time off for dependants. This will not be at the discretion of your manager. The joint unions welcome this as a very positive step towards making the BBC a genuinely family friendly employer. Under Parental Leave the BBC have made a number of proposals about how it can be taken which improve on the statutory minimum. On the question of children born before 15th December they said they would await the outcome of the TUC-backed challenge to the UK government. They also would not concede that any of the leave should be paid. This is unfortunate, but although the position on paid Parental Leave is not what we would have hoped, taken together with the Time off for Dependants there are significant benefits for all those who have children or other dependants.

Redeployment

The unions asked that the five months redeployment period for those selected for redundancy should be made permanent in the same way as the six month period for those whose posts were closed. The BBC refused, but offered to extend it to 31st July 2001. The BBC accept that if the redundancies around the restructuring for One BBC are not completed by then the unions will ask for that date to be reviewed. The BBC are also setting aside £2 million for retraining and reskilling, money that will be spent on BBC staff to help them acquire new skills to stay employed.

Pensions

For staff facing redundancy there is a preferential discounting applied to their pensions. This means that if redundancy is unavoidable then there is a better pension. This arrangement is due to expire on 31st December 2000 and the unions asked for it to be extended until 2002. The BBC said they were sympathetic to this point and would ask the Head of Pensions to put it to the Pensions Trustees at the earliest opportunity. The unions are reasonably confident that this arrangement will be extended to 31st December 2002, but will be keeping a sharp eye on the situation.

Meal Breaks, Night Working and Christmas Leave

The BBC's negative response on these issues is disappointing. We believe it would have cost the BBC very little to have made improvements in the scheduling of meal breaks before six hours and some on the issue of night working would have demonstrated a more caring approach to staff who work difficult hours. The only improvement is that the payments for night working and for working Christmas day, Boxing Day or New Years Day will rise by 3%.

Vote YES

To summarise, the joint unions are recommending a YES vote for these reasons:

• A continuing contract after 3 years rather than 5.
• 10 days paid leave to look after dependants is a positive step toward
• A review of pay and reward where we will be looking at differentials and the wide pay bands, we want to try and get back to a rate for the job.
• The extension of 5 months redeployment until July 2001.

Please complete the ballot and return it in the envelope provided to the ERBS not later than 12 noon on Monday 10th July.

Yours sincerely,
Luke Crawley
Supervisory Official
BBC Division