Resources claim differences

Letter to BBC: BBC Resources Limited pay claim 2003

13 January 2003

I am writing on behalf of the Joint Trade Unions to set out our pay claim for 2002/3.

The first point to make is that we expect the general increase we seek to apply to all employees of Resources Limited, regardless of the type of contract they are on.

For staff on the standard Days and Hours contracts that will mean an increase in their pensionable pay and related payments. For those on a buyout contract or a special fixed salary they should receive the increase in their pensionable salary and the same increase in the additional payments that they receive. For the trainees on an 'all-in' contract they should receive the same increase in salary as everyone else. We would also seek the return of trainees to the same terms and conditions as all other staff.

We believe that the level of increase should be 4% and that this should be applied to all flat rate payments e.g. WOODs payments, Night Rates, UPA payments for Days Conditions staff, Christmas and Boxing Day payments and the floors and roofs of salary bands. It will also apply to any T-related payments. We would expect no change in the hours for which night payments are made.

We recognise that Resources Limited hopes to develop a separate system of pay from the BBC but we believe that there are some important principles which should continue to be held in common. We feel that the acceptance by the BBC of the need to raise the floor for low pay should be extended by Resources Limited to its staff. After all, the BBC employs many staff in similar categories to Resources, and if it believes it should not pay less than £11,500 then we believe that Resources Limited should also raise the minimum level of pay. Accordingly, we believe that the minimum salary in Resources Limited needs to be increased firstly to £11,744 (adjusted for inflation to date) and then this new level should be increased by 4% to £12,215. The BBC achieved this goal by eliminating band 1 and that would be a convenient way to achieve the same goal.

Unfortunately we have to part company with the BBC on the issue of London Weighting. Since last summer this has been an issue which has moved rapidly up the agenda and that has resulted in industrial action by several unions with members in London seeking a substantial increase. However we are not seeking an increase to £6,000 as are many of those unions, we seek an increase to £4,500 for all staff which would go some way to assisting with the additional costs of living in London.

We would also claim that the agreement reached at ACAS 1998 which gives staff selected for redundancy a notice period of 5 months should now be made permanent.

At our meeting on Tuesday 14th January I would hope to set out further details in support of our claim.

Luke Crawley
Supervisory Official

Letter from BBC: BBC Resources Ltd: Pay Offer April 2003/4

15 January 2003

We met yesterday to discuss the Resources pay proposals for 2003/4 and the joint union pay claim for April 2003 set out in your letter of 13th January 2003. BECTU was represented by Tony Lennon, Tony Scott, John Howcroft, David Atkinson and Colin Doogan. Apologies were noted from Sean Kelly & Henry Gibson. BBC Resources Ltd was represented by Mike Southgate, Richard Philipps, Stephen Killick, Kate Horton and myself.

You explained the background to your pay claim in more detail and we explained the current competitive and economic environment and the business challenges we face over the next financial year and beyond.

Principle Elements of the joint union pay claim:

• A standard increase of 4% to apply to all salaries and all flat rate payments and allowances.
• The introduction of a minimum salary of £12,215 p.a. ( excluding London Weighting)
• All current buy-out and SFS contractual arrangements be brought within the collective bargaining framework and therefore for the standard increase to be applied to all SFS salaries on the 1st April 2003.
• An increase in London Weighing to £4,500 p.a.
• The incorporation of trainees into the current conditions of service framework
• The continuation on a permanent basis of the 5 month minimum redeployment period for staff selected for compulsory redundancy (agreed for a temporary period as part of the 1998 ACAS agreement.)

BBC Resources pay offer and response to join union pay claim:

1. General pay Increase, London Weighting and Minimum Salary

BBC Resources is operating in a highly competitive environment and one in which our staff costs and pay rates have a significant impact on our ability to win work. Although current inflation is running at 2.6% the expectation is for inflation to stay at around 2.5% over the next 12 months. Our competitors face a tough economic environment and have implemented pay freezes or modest pay increases in recent months.

Although our financial performance in 2002/3 has been strong and we expect to make a profit for the first time, and to exceed our business targets for 2002/3, we are also aware that 2002/3 has been a particularly strong year for programming with a number of significant events such as the Golden Jubilee, the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. £21m of our income for 2002/3 will not be repeated and, although our profit targets for 2003/4 take this into account, we nonetheless face a significant challenge to meet our targets next year with a lower level of volume. We also continue to operate in a highly competitive market where supply, particularly for the next two years, far exceeds demand and in most areas we will struggle to increase our prices by even inflation.

The combination of a 4% across the board increase together with an increase in London weighting to £4,500 would amount to an 8% increase in our pay bill and is not affordable

However we share your views on some issues. In particular we accept that the cost of living in London presents the most difficulty to those on lower salaries. We are aware that the BBC has implemented a minimum basic salary and London Weighting rates that offer additional benefit to those on lower salaries. We would like to reflect those principles.

We therefore tabled the following offer:

An investment of 2.5% in the paybill to address the general pay increase and issues around London Weighting and the lower paid. The 2.5% to be distributed as follows:

• A standard increase of 2.2% with effect from 1st April 2003, (for staff groups within the collective bargaining structure)
• All associated allowances would also increase by 2.2% from 1st April 2003 including London Weighting ( see below); days conditions UPA rates, Protected Continuing allowances, WOODs payments, night rates, protected roofs, Christmas day and New Years day payments. The salary range ceilings and floors would also be increased by the standard increase.

A further 0.3% to be invested in addressing the issue of the lower paid in two ways:

• The introduction of a minimum basic salary, (excluding London Weighting) of £11,500
• The introduction of two rates of London Weighting:
  • For those staff on salaries of more than £22,000 p.a., London Weighting of £2968 (equal to a 2.2% increase to current Resources London Weighting rates)
  • For those staff on less than £22,000 p.a., London Weighting of £ 3312

We also confirmed the following:

• The standard increase would apply to all current trainees
• We would not propose any change to the hours attracting night payments as part of this pay proposal

SFS Contracts, ACAS redeployment provisions, Trainees Conditions of Service

1. SFS Contracts

SFS contracts are individually negotiated at various points of the year and take the form of temporary negotiated annual buy-outs. Each negotiation takes into account the volume of work bought out for the individual member of staff either in the form of hours or days, and a salary package associated with this is agreed on both sides. No SFS contracts are implemented without the express agreement of the individual. Clearly during the negotiation both the manager and staff member will take into account the effect the standard pay increase has on the underlying terms and conditions. The standard increase will be applied to the underlying salary and all related allowances and any individual reserves the right to return to those terms if they are unable to reach a satisfactory agreement with their manager.

We therefore do not believe that the application of an across the board standard increase to all SFS contracts can sensibly apply to these individually agreed contracts and are not be prepared to agree to this element of your pay claim.

2. Extension of the ACAS agreement on redeployment

Whilst not being prepared to make this a permanent feature, we offered to extend this arrangement until April 2005.

3. Trainees Conditions of Service

We have recently completed lengthy discussions with BECTU regarding the introduction of new contractual arrangements for our trainees during their two year training period. We accepted that trainees who succeed in securing a continuing contract position at the end of their training period would transfer into the conditions of service in place at that time. During those discussions we explained at length the business reasons for structuring our trainee contracts in this way and, whilst we understand that you do not agree with our views, we are not prepared to re-open those discussion as part of the 2003/4 pay settlement.

This offer outlined above will benefit the trainees in particular. They will qualify for an up-lift to the minimum salary proposed and the application of the higher value London Weighting allowance. This would increase their current salary on joining from £14k to £14,812.

Company and Business unit Bonus

As we have indicated throughout the year, we are now able to confirm our intention to pay a bonus based on our financial performance at the end of the financial year.

Although we can't predict for sure the level of bonus this will deliver, based on current business forecasts, we expect to invest a further 1% of paybill in this one-off bonus.

The bonus would be paid as a flat rate for each business unit based on the success of the company and the individual business units and therefore will further benefit lower paid staff.

The combined proposal outlined above represents a 3.5% investment in staff pay distributed as a 2.2% standard increase, a 0.3% investment in improving the position of our lower paid staff and, subject to business performance, the intention to invest 1% of paybill in a company wide bonus scheme.

We believe this is a good and fair offer against the economic and competitive pressures we know we will face in the future.

You made clear that you would now consult the Resources SDC and communicate widely with staff, but given the position reached today you would be unable to recommend acceptance.

We agreed to meet again shortly to continue discussions and to hear your response from the Resources SDC meeting, scheduled for January 16th.

Rachel Currie
BBC Resources HR Director