BBC 3.6% rise confirmed
The 3.6% BBC pay increase covering most staff has been confirmed.
This year's 3.6% pay increase has been clinched by an agreement struck with the BBC at the beginning of July.
Under the terms of the deal, the unions are committed to a timetable which "aspires" to introduce a new pay and grading system by August 2004.
The agreement unlocked an extra 0.5% payment on top of inflation, which had been promised last year, but was conditional on progress being made in negotiations about the new pay system.
Key to this month's deal was the BBC's acknowledgement that the unions could not be blamed for the slow pace of pay talks throughout spring and summer, and management agreed to pay the 0.5% even though details of the new pay regime have still not been hammered out.
The BBC also accepted that the unions have the right to make representations on anti-social working, despite management ruling out the return of one-off payments for weekends. For their part, the unions have agreed that the new system would be based on BBC-wide job families, within which there would be specified job descriptions with target salaries - a proposal that goes some way towards the objective of achieving rate-for-the-job pay scales.
Salaries within each family would be set by several factors, including market rates, and the families would be separate from each other.
Negotiations will also cover a possible replacement for Unpredictability Allowances (UPA) - the BBC is committed to continuing to reward unpredictable working, but would prefer to build any payment into basic salary. If UPAs are altered or abolished, existing recipients will be protected against loss, ac-cording to the management, and the unions are expecting detailed proposals from the BBC in autumn.
Staff across the BBC, except those in BBC Worldwide Ltd and BBC Resources Ltd, should receive the 3.6% increase in their August pay packets.
Members in BBC Worldwide Ltd have voted to accept a 3% increase from this month, after management improved an opening offer of 2.25%. A union demand for 3.1%, the same as the BBC's basic rise without the conditional 0.5%, was turned down by management, who pointed out that the most recent inflation figure was exactly 3.0%.