5% pay claim in Worldwide

BECTU has tabled a claim for a 5% pay increase at subsidiary Worldwide Ltd.

The claim, due to be settled on July 1, also includes a demand for an end to merit pay, and better arrangements for payment of bonuses, a long-standing feature of the Worldwide pay structure.

Many of the details in the claim mirror the pay demand presented to the BBC centrally, even though Worldwide Ltd conducts bargaining separately. These details include a call for a minimum increase of £800, and full maternity rights for women staff from their first day of joining.

Unlike the main BBC claim though, the union is calling on Worldwide to end its recruitment freeze on the grounds that cover for leave and sickness is becoming difficult to arrange.

In the last financial year, 2003/03, BBC Worldwide Ltd increased its cash return to the BBC from £106m to £123m a year.

BBC Worldwide Ltd pay claim 2004

5th March 2004

Mr Bob McCall
HR Director
Room A3157
BBC Worldwide Ltd
80 Wood Lane
London
W12 OTT

Dear Bob

This letter serves as formal notice of the joint union’s pay claim for 2004/05.

The aspiration to be valued as highly as employees in the BBC remains. BBC Worldwide staff are instrumental in promoting the BBC across the globe and should be rewarded in the same way as the rest of the organisation. This claim mirrors the one made to the BBC by the joint unions in many respects but also contains elements relevant to BBC Worldwide alone.

The claim is for a rise of 5% applicable to all flat rate payments and the target salaries. The pay rise should be 5% or £800, whichever is the highest.

We ask you to consider a greater paid leave entitlement across the board, the detail of which we could tease out at our first meeting.

In order to bring an end to years of resentment we ask you to end Merit Pay and consolidate it, across the board, into substantive salaries. We believe that bonus payments are long overdue for assessment and clarification. Further to this, you are asked to consider a guaranteed minimum bonus with a greater stretch, across the board. We formally request that from an agreed date, bonuses will be itemised to ensure that individuals know how the calculation was made.

We believe that the system for the payment of bonuses is most unfairly flawed with reference to the July 1st cut off point. We propose two mechanisms to end the punitive nature of the above stipulation.

  1. An individual who works April to April should receive the full bonus even if he or she leaves BBC Worldwide employment before July 1st.
  2. An individual who leaves employment before completing a financial year’s work should be paid the bonus pro rata.
Now that our recent agreement on Terms and Conditions has had time to settle in, it would be helpful if we could have as much data as you have accumulated on Target Salaries. The percentage of staff who have reached their target would clearly be of interest and we seek to discuss the general position on target salaries going forward.

We wish to return to the issue of EHP payments which we left to be discussed at local level in the areas we perceived to be at risk of going beyond what was reasonable.

Although Night Pay is not a factor in BBC Worldwide generally, we understand that colleagues in BDS can sometimes be called upon to work at night. We will discuss this with you in more detail at our first meeting.

Despite assurances given last year concerning the notice period in a redundancy situation, concern remains and we seek to engage in meaningful discussion with a view to ameliorate the brutal swiftness with which the process is marked.

We ask you to remove the qualifying period for maternity pay in order for employees to benefit from their entitlement from their first day of employment. On paternity leave we seek an improvement on the statutory provisions. During our discussions it would be helpful if we could agree a formula for the guidance of managers in relation to the allocation of special leave.

We ask you to consider exploring the possibility of creche places for Worldwide staff in the on-site crèche.

We ask you to end the recruitment freeze as reports of the negative effects of not covering for sickness, maternity, holiday leave and staff departure are becoming more common.

Mindful of Worldwide’s commitment to a proper work life balance and the new statutory provisions for flexible working we seek to work with you to a more consistent approach to requests for flexible working. Did managers receive any kind of instruction subsequent to our discussions on this last time? If so, it would be helpful in trying to account for the many reports we have of outright refusal to discuss the matter.

I look forward to meeting you next week.

Yours sincerely
JIM JOHNSTONE
National Official

8 March 2004