Don't sign with Siemens says union

BECTU members affected by the sale of BBC Technology have been advised not to fill in or sign any documents from Siemens.

Union officials have accused the company of "bouncing" members into hasty decisions before discussions about their future terms and conditions within Siemens Business Services have been concluded.

The "don't sign" advice was given after BBCT staff were presented with forms to complete at meetings with representatives from Siemens, the German-owned conglomerate which hopes to buy the BBC's technology subsidiary on September 1.

Information requested by Siemens included personal employment details, and staff were also asked to declare whether or not they wanted to join the company's pension scheme if the sale went ahead.

Gerry Morrissey, BECTU's Assistant General Secretary, said: "The confusion caused this morning is exactly what you should expect when employers rush through something as complicated as a company sale. There's a real danger that managers will start to make things up as they go along, which is the worst possible situation for staff who are already worried and angry, and the September 1st deadline has got to be lifted".

Final terms and conditions for staff involved in the privatisation exercise are still under negotiation with BECTU, including the benefits to be offered by the newly-created pension scheme, and even as BBCT staff were being asked to sign up with Siemens, officials were studying a new draft from the company.

A finished version of Siemens' proposals for the treatment of staff if the sale goes ahead is expected to be issued by the BBC later today, July 20. The initial draft fell well short of BECTU's demands for a three-year period after sale during which conditions of service would be protected, and no compulsory redundancies would occur.

BECTU is also concerned that the pension scheme, although "broadly comparable" to the BBC's own final-salary scheme, still needs improvements, especially in the calculation used to determine final pensions, and the proportion of pension lost if staff retire early, or are made redundant.

However, union lawyers have advised that the revised proposals could constitute a "new offer", which means that it will need to be put to members in a consultative ballot before industrial action can go ahead.

Any ballot will have to be run promptly, since the four-week period in which action must begin following the union's successful ballot earlier this month expires in early August.

Union negotiators warned this morning that some form of action was "almost certain" unless the BBC's timetable for sell-off was slowed down, and Siemens tabled real improvements in guarantees to staff and the new pension scheme.