BBC pensions dispute resolved

02/12/10
Pensions

Retirement payments for BBC employees agreed.

BBC pension scheme changes decided at ACAS meeting.

The pensions dispute between the BBC and its staff unions may end this week after the parties came to an agreement over proposed pension scheme changes yesterday.

Members of National Union of Journalists (NUJ) took strike action last month due to the BBC’s decision to reduce its £1.5 billion deficit by altering its employee pension plan. At the time the union described the changes as “unfair and unacceptable”.

After nine hours of talks at the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) the BBC agreed “in principle” to increase pension contributions by up to 4% a year, which will take place over the course of the next six years.

Lucy Adams, director of BBC People, said in an email to staff: “We are pleased to say that discussions on behalf of the joint unions and the BBC reached a conclusion and an agreement in principle was signed by the joint unions on this final outstanding point. We now expect to move towards finalising our proposals and will keep you updated in the next few weeks”.

The dispute was taken to ACAS last week to bring an end to the five-month disagreement. Though the issues have been resolved they are not yet finalised.

A report by the NUJ said the “agreement in principle…will be recommended for acceptance at [a] meeting on Friday. The union called on the BBC to hold off on implementing any changes until the deficit was known and also sought to limit the BBC’s ability to vary the rate at which pensions are revalued under the proposed new scheme”.