Pay and reward talks speed up
Another year of talks with the BBC about a new pay structure are about to start.
Under an agreement which secured last month's 3.6% pay increase, unions and management are now committed to major changes in the pay and reward system by August 2004.
The BBC is looking for a salary structure which has "greater clarity" and gives individuals a clearer idea of their prospects for salary progression.
Management also want to discuss modern day operational requirements in a bid to design a new reward system for scheduling flexibility which, they say, "may replace Unpredictability Allowances".
Although discussions on a new pay system have been running since the salary increase of August 2002, progress had been slow until management began to focus on this year's rise.
In 2002, unions were promised an increase worth 0.5% above inflation this August provided the pay talks had progressed adequately.
However, by June this year there were still no concrete proposals for change, and the BBC switched tack by proposing an interim agreement that could unlock the pay increase by committing the unions to a list of principles that would underpin the new system.
One of the key principles in the list is the creation of job families across the BBC, in each of which would be a number of seniority levels reflecting a "typical BBC career". These levels would effectively replace the current 10-band grading structure.
For each level there would be a "target salary range" (TSR) - not a fixed rate for the job as the unions wanted, but a much narrower range of possible salaries for fully competent staff than the current pay bands, which can span £10,000 or more.
Below the TSR the BBC wants a "development" zone, where slightly lower salaries would be paid to recently appointed staff who had not yet achieved full competence.
Management have emphasised that this would not be a trainee grade, and some new staff would go straight into the target salary range. Management want to retain the ability to pay above the TSR "in exceptional circumstances", but have accepted that there need to be transparent rules to determine whether individual staff should be above, or below, the target salary.
In a victory for the unions after several years of lobbying, the current performance pay system will end when the new pay structure is introduced, to be replaced by non-consolidated bonuses.
Another boost for unions is a BBC promise that a new formula for acting payments will be introduced in areas where managers scrapped them under the last big shake-up of the pay system.
The wording of the interim agreement is more guarded on the question of UPAs (Unpredictability Allowances), an issue that caused major controversy last year when the BBC first revealed it was hoping to replace them. Management acknowledge that change and disruption to staff schedules deserve a reward, but do not go into detail about their preferred model.
The agreement does, however, say that basic salaries could include some reward for flexibility - which by implication would be pensionable - while excessive disruption could be further rewarded by additional retrospective payments.
Replacement of the current UPA system could prove to be the trickiest part of the renewed round of talks on pay and reward - the unions have been unequivocal in warning the BBC that they will do whatever is necessary to protect the interests of members who receive unpredictability allowances.
With their repeated assurances that any change in UPA would be accompanied by financial cushioning measure to protect losers, the management have indicated an awareness that there could be major problems if the negotiations are mishandled.
No dates have yet been fixed for discussions between unions and management, but a full calendar running well into next year is expected to be agreed by the end of September.
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