THE BBC is set to face strike action over job cuts, pensions and pay as unions declared a series of actions in the wake of the huge pay rises awarded to senior managers.
NUJ members will be balloted for strike action over a 2.6 per cent pay offer and BBC plans to force thousands of staff to pay more and work longer before they can receive their pension. Strike action is also likely unless planned compulsory redundancies in BBC News, which is at the forefront of the corporation’s current affairs output, are withdrawn.
The move comes in the wake of news that BBC managers received pay awards of over 30 per cent and that the pension fund is showing a surplus in excess of £100m.
NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: ‘BBC managers cannot be surprised by the immense anger with which their actions have been met by hard-working staff. Whilst hundreds of journalists were hard at work on one of the busiest news days of the year BBC managers were celebrating huge pay awards.
‘The fact that money can be found to reward managers who have axed jobs, cut programme budgets and presided over a pensions fiasco, but cannot be found to save vital jobs in current affairs, shows where the current BBC management’s priorities lie.
‘Their shame-faced refusal to negotiate simply adds to the sense that there is one law for fat cat bosses and another for dedicated BBC staff.’
The decision to ballot NUJ members was taken at a meeting of BBC reps at the NUJ’s headquarters on Monday 10 July.
The Joint BBC unions are to write today to the BBC setting out plans for the ballot and to call for an urgent national level meeting with Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC, to discuss pay and pensions in a last ditch bid to avert the need for strike action.
NUJ National Broadcasting Organiser Paul McLaughlin said: ‘BBC reps have made it clear they will no longer accept the management’s double standards or their continued refusal to listen to staff concerns.
‘BBC management have got their priorities all wrong – huge increases for executives, a pay cut and worse pension for everyone else.
‘Members are calling for action and we will be holding a strike ballot unless the BBC comes to its senses’.
The ballot is expected to begin on 21 July.
The resolution that was carried by BBC NUJ M/FoCs reads:
‘This meeting of M/FoCs:
1. Condemns the BBC management’s decision to award senior managers pay rises around 26 per cent whilst offering staff a below-inflation 2.6 per cent and a derisory increase in night pay. Further condemns the decision to close the final salary pension scheme to new staff whilst forcing existing staff to pay more and work longer in order to receive the same benefits despite the BBC Pension Fund being in surplus.
Calls for an urgent meeting with Mark Thompson to discuss these issues. In the event of a refusal to meet or a failure to address union concerns M/FoCs resolve to ballot members for strike action over pay and pensions.
2. Notes plans to make News staff compulsorily redundant and the threat of further redundancies across the BBC, including at the World Service.
M/FoCs resolves to call further strike action in News in the event of any compulsory redundancies of union members and elsewhere should attempts be made to carry out compulsory redundancies.’
