Unions agree new rules

New arrangements for flexible working and maternity pay have been agreed.

The new arrangements have been agreed by BBC unions, following the introduction of revised legislation which extended workers' legal entitlements.

The legal changes coincided with the BBC's Making it Happen initiative, which was credited by management with inspiring the new rules.

In fact, the BBC's alterations to staff rights mostly go only as far as the new legislation demands, and no further.

One exception to this is the right of all staff, not just those with young children, to invoke a formal procedure requiring managers to give serious consideration to requests for flexible working, and to give written reasons if a request is turned down.

Staff without young children will not, though, have any right to refer refusals to employment tribunals if they feel their manager's decision was unreasonable.

In the case of maternity arrangements, where the BBC's provisions are already more generous than the legal minimum, a union request for women with short service (between six months and a year) to qualify for full BBC maternity pay was turned down flat by management.

Despite signing the new maternity agreement, unions have not ruled out another future attempt to extend full maternity pay to women with less than one year of BBC employment.