Ballot for action on BBC pay

An industrial action ballot is planned for BECTU and NUJ members as unions reject a 2.7% pay offer.

The ballot of BECTU and NUJ members, which could start within two weeks, comes after the BBC tabled its final offer at a meeting on June 3, where management refused to accept the unions' demand for a 5% increase.

Negotiators turned the offer down on the spot, but agreed to maintain silence until branch and chapel representatives from both unions had considered their next move.

A meeting of NUJ chapel officers today decided to force the BBC's hand by running an industrial action ballot, echoing an identical decision by BECTU representatives last week.

The 2.7% pay offer, which covers staff directly employed by the BBC, as well as all staff in BBC Broadcast Ltd, faced criticism because it was barely above the increase in cost of living, did not include a bottom-loading payment to assist lower-paid staff, and took no account of increases in productivity.

With a licence increase of 4.3% earlier this year, negotiators believed that the BBC could have tabled a more generous offer, following a two-year period in which pay was pegged only slightly above inflation.

In detail, the rejected offer comprised:

• A 2.7% salary increase from August 1
• Improvements in night pay (low rate increased to £7.50 an hour, higher rate to £14.68) and clearer rules about recovery time after a succession of night duties
• Qualification period for maternity pay reduced from 52 weeks to 28
• Extension of the 1998 ACAS agreement on redundancies (5/6 months notice period) to July 2005
• Increase of £3.00 in flat rate evening meal for staff away from base (not a pay bargaining issue says the BBC, but included in union pay claim)

During pay negotiations the BBC accepted that the pay offer was barely above inflation, but argued that ground had been conceded on other elements of the union claim, especially on night pay where significant improvements to rates and trigger times had been sought.

However, when detailed costings were presented, it became clear that all the extras added together came to as little as 0.l% of the paybill.

Management said their strategy had been to give the highest possible increase so that the maximum number of staff could benefit, but the unions pointed out the comparatively better deals reached elsewhere in the BBC this year.

In BBC Technology, members accepted by a narrow margin an offer of 2.5% plus a £1,000 cash bonus, while in BBC Resources, which also bargains separately with the unions, the 2004 pay increase was 2.8%.

Industrial action has already been threatened in another bargaining unit, BBC Worldwide Ltd, where members are currently balloting after rejecting a 2.6% pay offer.