BBC pay and pensions deal accepted

BECTU's BBC members have voted to accept a 2.8% pay increase and watered-down changes to pension benefits.

In a postal ballot 61.4% of members in the BBC voted in favour of the package, which was tabled by management last month in the face of a strike threat.

Members in BBC Worldwide accepted the deal with an 89.7% majority in favour, while 82.7% of those working for BBC Resources, voting only on the pension changes, accepted.

Results in a parallel ballot of the NUJ's journalist members produced an opposite result with 59.4% voting to reject the pay and pensions offer.

Neither union made any recommendation on which way members were advised to vote - a condition imposed by the BBC when it tabled the compromise package.

BECTU expects that the BBC will implement the 2.8% increase in time for the rise to appear in August pay packets. The increase also applies to more than 80 ex-BBC staff in Scotland who transferred to Siemens this summer when the company took charge of the technology infrastructure of a new broadcast centre in Glasgow.

Although BECTU's membership has accepted the increase, and the pension changes which will particularly affect new staff from September this year, the union plans to warn the BBC that the modest majority in favour of the package demonstrates deep unhappiness among staff.

In particular, many members remain angry at the below-inflation pay offer in a year when top BBC executives were given bumper increases.

Representatives from BECTU, NUJ, and Amicus (which has yet to declare the result of its ballot) plan to meet on September 1 to discuss their joint response to the BBC, given the disparate ballot results.