Dear all,

I wanted to give everyone a further update on pension reform and the current dispute with the NUJ.

First I want to thank everyone who helped ensure that the disruption to our services to the public last Friday and Saturday was kept to a minimum. There was less disruption on the second day of the stoppage than there had been on the first, and overall less disruption as a result of this strike than during the last big stoppage in 2005. No one enjoys the difficult choice about whether to cross a picket-line.

I also know that many members of staff – including members of those unions who have voted to accept the BBC's final offer on pension reform – continue to worry about the impact of the reforms on them and their colleagues. But I am very grateful that, despite all these issues, so many of you decided to put the BBC's audiences first last week.

So what happens next? The NUJ have begun a work to rule this week and have a second 48-hour strike planned for next week. We are putting in place plans to handle both of these and will seek, if possible, to offer the public programmes and services from the BBC with even less disruption than last week. That will be the case however many strikes there are. As I said to you in my email last week, we have already reached a final position with four out of five of the BBC unions. We cannot and will not enter fresh negotiations or contemplate fresh changes to the agreed offer on pension reform no matter how much industrial action there is from the NUJ.

The staff consultation on the BBC's pension proposal ends on 15 November.

As you know, we made significant changes to our original pension proposals as a result of what you told us and the agreement we reached with the unions reflected many of the concerns you raised. Nothing has been thrown up in the latter stages of the consultation that would cause us to make any substantive or economically significant changes to the package, but there are a few areas where you would like clarification on the detail of the proposals. Once the consultation closes we hope to offer you that clarity, by writing to both staff and unions to set out our detailed implementation plans.

All the best,

Mark Thompson


Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/08/mark-thompson-bbc-pensions