BBC staff in one-day work-to-rule protest over pension proposals

Members of the broadcasting unions at the BBC are working to rule today as the dispute over changes to the corporation's final salary pension scheme rumbles on.

BBC staff have been asked by the unions to ensure they take scheduled breaks, have a full 11-hour break between shifts and work no more than 12 hours at a stretch.

The unions' mandate for industrial action expires on Monday, so they had to either call a full strike or work-to-rule measures or face having to reballot their BBC members.

Today's work to rule means the unions – Bectu, the NUJ, the Musicians' Union, Equity and Unite – can now call industrial action at any time until the end of the ongoing dispute with BBC management over the pension proposals.

A separate ballot of the members of all five unions representing BBC staff is underway to see if they accept director general Mark Thompson's improved offer tabled earlier this month. The ballot closes at 12pm next Thursday, 28 October, and the result will be made public about an hour later after Electoral Reform Services verifies the process and count.

The outcome of the vote is understood to be precariously balanced. It has emerged that there is an "expectation" that NUJ members, the second-largest BBC union with 4,000, will vote to reject management's offer. The ballot of members of the biggest BBC union, Bectu, is thought to be "finely poised".

Gerry Morrissey, the Bectu general secretary, has previously said to members that management's proposals are "the best that can be achieved without industrial action".

The pension dispute is separate to any action the unions may choose to take over this week's hastily negotiated licence-fee settlement between the BBC and government, which will see the BBC face cuts of 16% in real terms over four years and take on extra funding responsibilities including the World Service.

Unions cannot ballot members until a formal proposal has been received from BBC management. The first area where the impact of the licence fee deal is likely to be felt is the World Service.

"The new deal has no significance in the sense of any industrial action at this point. It can't as there are no concrete proposals from management to staff," said one union source. "It will be coming down the line, yes, but it means nothing to what is going on right at this minute."

By MArk Sweeney

Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oct/22/bbc-work-to-rule-pensions-dispute