BBC pension trustee chairman 'frustrated' over corporation plans

The BBC pension trustee chairman, Jeremy Peat, has said he felt "frustrated and relatively powerless" over management's plans to change the corporation's pension scheme.

He was speaking at a meeting on Tuesday night in which around 1,000 BBC staff voted for the BBC pension trustees to "perform their duties to protect the benefits of members".

There was widespread anger this summer after BBC management announced it wants to scrap its generous final salary pension scheme to plug a £1.5bn-£2bn pension deficit.

Staff have voted for industrial action, which unless a compromise can be reached, is scheduled to take place during the Tory party conference on 5 and 6 October and on 19 and 20 October, which could hit the BBC's coverage of chancellor George Osborne's spending review.

Peat – who is also a member of the BBC Trust - admitted that "with hindsight" the trustees "could have and should have spoken out earlier".

However, Peat said the trustees "honestly believe it would not have made any difference given the direction the BBC chose to go".

The trustees were given very little warning about the proposals and Peat said that had the BBC given them to the trustees they probably would have rejected them.

He said the BBC should have looked at a range of alternatives and said that he expects the current proposal for a new career-averaged benefits option called "CAB 2011" would have to be implemented by rule changes to the pension scheme.

This is likely to require the pension trustees' approval, an issue on which the trustees have been taking legal advice.

Peat also said the idea of using the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and BBC Television Centre as asset backing for an equity bond to try to close the deficit had stalled. In addition he said that consultants Ernst & Young are delivering a review of the BBC's covenants.

The trustees are meeting with the director general, Mark Thompson, finance chief Zarin Patel and BBC People boss Lucy Adams next week. The pension trustees were forced to hold Tuesday's meeting after 1,100 staff signed up to find out why they had said relatively little about the BBC's proposals.

They put forward the motion: "This meeting of members of the BBC pension scheme calls on the trustees to perform their duties to protect the benefits of the members. Specifically we call on them to oppose the BBC's plan to reduce the eventual value of contributions already made to the scheme."

Unions are currently consulting with their members, holding a series of meetings with BBC staff across the UK on the pension proposals until 30 September. There will then be a joint meeting of the three unions' officials on 1 October.


By:- Tara Conlan.

Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/17/bbc-pensions-jeremy-peat