BBC 3.5% pay offer recommended
The offer being recommended:
- 3.5% basic increase
- Minimum rise of £550
- Enhanced redundancy notice continues until 31.03.2008
- London weighting rises to £3,213
(£3,586 if salary below £22k) - Night pay increases to:
£7.76 (0000-0400)
£15.21 (0400-0600) - Christmas Day/Boxing Day (or Jan 1 in Scotland) payment goes to £104.93
BECTU, NUJ, and Amicus are advising BBC members to accept this year's pay offer in postal ballots.
The offer, due to be paid from August 1, was made by management on June 30, after the unions rejected an earlier proposal for a 3.2% rise.
Members are now being balloted on a revised offer of 3.5% which will be paid to staff in the BBC itself, and BBC Broadcast, a subsidiary which could be sold off this summer.
The offer includes a minimum increase of £550, and management have also agreed to extend the 1998 ACAS agreement on extended notice of redundancy until 2008.
Pay talks started later than usual at the BBC this year due to a dispute, and industrial action, over plans for job cuts and privatisation at the Corporation. A union ballot on concessions offered at ACAS in May is due to close on July 4,
At a meeting on June 23 the BBC was presented with a claim from the staff unions for an increase 2% above the current rate of inflation, with a minimum increase of £1,000 to assist members on low pay.
Unusually, there were no accompanying claims for improvements in conditions of service, intentionally excluded by the unions to allow the BBC to channel any available cash into basic pay.
Despite a 4.5% increase in the BBC's licence fee this year, the Corporation's main source of income, management argued that pay restraint was needed, not least because of a need to raise £155 million by the end of 2006 to clear the BBC's overdraft.
Management were also wary about the claim for a substantial minimum increase, arguing that the £1,000 figure claimed by unions would distort differentials at the bottom of the BBC grading structure.
Unions argued that, in a year when there had already been industrial protests at job cuts, staff should be given an significant increase to boost morale.
Pay settlements in BBC Worldwide and BBC Resources earlier in the year had both been based on increases of 3.5%, said the unions.
The BBC refused to reveal whether senior executives had received generous bonuses once more, claiming that the information was confidential until publication of the BBC's Annual Report, expected in mid-July.
However, detailed cost figures for a number of controversial projects were given in response to union questions, and it emerged that the Ashridge training programme for managers had already cost £11.5 million. Unions compared this unfavourably to the £43.8 million that management said would be added to the BBC's wage bill by the opening offer of 3.2%.
BECTU's ballot on pay will close on July 18 [earlier date of July 11 amended], meaning a much shorter voting period than in previous years, but early enough closing date to ensure that the increase is paid in August if accepted by members.
Text of letter sent to BECTU members with voting papers
30th June 2005
TO: BECTU MEMBERS IN THE BBC AND BROADCAST LTD
Dear Colleague,
This letter sets out the details of the BBC's final offer on pay for 2005. Please use your ballot paper to let us know your views and return it in the envelope provided. We are recommending that you vote YES in the ballot.
We have had two meetings with the BBC on pay and the first meeting on Thursday 23rd June concluded with an offer on the table of 3.2% and a minimum increase of £500. This would apply to staff employed by the BBC and by BBC Broadcast Ltd, who will pay the same increase as that agreed by the BBC.
The Joint Unions told the BBC that this offer was not good enough and the BBC should reconsider it. At a second meeting this morning the BBC moved to 3.5% with a minimum amount of £550. This will mean that all those who earn less than £15,714 will get more than 3.5% and there are 1781 people employed by the BBC and Broadcast who will benefit from the minimum payment. The 3.5% increase will apply to all salary related payments including night pay and UPA payments. This final offer was tabled by the BBC on condition the Joint Unions recommended to their members that it should be accepted. We are happy to do so because we think with inflation running at 2.9% this offer represents a real increase in pay for all, and there is a significant benefit to the lower paid. We are also aware that with negotiations on restructuring in prospect members may well have other things on their mind as well as pay. Further details are on our website at www.BECTU.org.uk.
The 1998 ACAS agreement has also been extended until March 31st 2008 so that those facing possible redundancy during the restructuring proposed by the BBC will still have five months in which to look for re-deployment elsewhere in the Corporation.
THE BALLOT BECTU is recommending that you should vote YES. Please return the ballot paper in the envelope provided to BECTU Head Office no later than12 noon on Monday 18th July 2005. If you wish to reject the offer then you should vote no. If there is a no vote then the next step will be to ballot you for industrial action to try and increase the offer.
You have been sent this letter because we believe that you are an employee of the BBC or BBC Broadcast Ltd. If that is not the case please can you email [email protected] and let us know.
Yours sincerely,
Luke Crawley
Supervisory Official
Amended 5 July 2005