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Pensions to cost more than radio stations (Read 3180 times)
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Pensions to cost more than radio stations
Aug 18th, 2010, 8:44am
 
Licence fee payers face a bill of £100 million a year to fill the BBC’s pension fund deficit, even if proposed cuts in its benefits are carried through.

The BBC’s predicted increase in what it pays into the scheme is more than it spends each year on Radio 2 and Radio 3 put together.

Senior managers, led by the director-general Mark Thompson, are trying to avert strikes over pension proposals by the broadcasting unions, Bectu and the National Union of Journalists.

Any action could take Last Night of the Proms off the air next month and disrupt live sports coverage in the autumn. The strike ballot follows BBC proposals to cap increases in pensionable salaries at one per cent a year, far lower than the predicted rate of inflation and regardless of increases in pension-holders’ actual salaries.

The proposals have been described by the unions as “pensions robbery”.

The BBC says it spends 3.5 per cent of its licence fee income, or £140 million a year, on pension contributions.

But it admitted yesterday in its in-house magazine, Ariel, that this is forecast to rise to between 5 and 6 per cent, an increase of up to £100  million, even with the proposed cuts.

Mr Thompson said yesterday that the proposals were “act one of the drama”.

“We are determined to go through this process in ways that show we are listening to staff, and as far as possible – I don’t know how far that can be – to reflect those concerns in the eventual proposals,” he said.

His room for manoeuvre is limited by the size of the BBC’s pension fund deficit, which could be as much as £2 billion.

Jeremy Dear, the general secretary of the NUJ, said: “To take away pensions staff have already earned is unfair and unacceptable and if the BBC management wants to avoid a serious dispute with its own staff it must guarantee sufficient funds to meet its pension obligations.”

Staff are currently voting on the strike ballot, with feelings running so high that one union source suggested it would be “possibly the first ever unanimous vote in favour of strike action”.

BBC managers will present new proposals on Sept 1, the day the result of the ballot will be announced.

Georg Lentze, a senior BBC monitoring journalist, said: “It’s a betrayal of the conditions on which I accepted employment. The BBC should use as much of the licence fee as it takes to fulfil its pension commitments.”

Ros Altmann, a pensions expert, said the cuts being proposed were “harsh”, and suggested that the proposed cap on increases in pensionable salary should be eased.

She suggested increasing members’ contributions or pension age, but added: “At the end of the day, workers can probably no longer rely on employers to support them in retirement. They will have to make their own financial plans.”

By Neil Midgley

Source:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7951301/Pensions-at-BBC-to-cos...
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