Pensions remarks sets hares running
Comments by DG Mark Thompson have prompted BECTU to demand a meeting about the future of the BBC pension scheme.
In an article in staff newspaper Ariel headlined "End in sight for final salary pension schemes", the comments suggested that the BBC was planning to raise contributions into the scheme for itself and current staff, while simultaneously reducing pension benefits for new staff.
Although committed to the retention of an occupational pension scheme, Thompson said that it was "subject to affordability". Last year's BBC accounts revealed that the scheme's assets, estimated to be well over £7 billion, were actually £422 million lower than the sum needed to meet its liabilities to present and future pensioners.
Just over 21,000 staff contribute to the pension scheme - a figure which is significantly exceeded by the number of pensioners and deferred pensioners, who total nearly 33,000.
When the accounts were published both the BBC and its unions emphasised that the formula used to calculate pension figures, known as FRS17, was an extremely tough measurement, which did not necessarily tell a true story of the scheme's health. Using a formula preferred by actuaries, the professionals who work out pension liabilities, the scheme had a surplus of £274 million in 2005.
Nevertheless, the BBC has been predicting a crunch moment for some years, when the surplus, which has allowed for reduced contributions into the scheme since the mid-90s, finally runs out.
In 2003 the BBC began a phased increase in pension contributions will reach 6% from staff and the Corporation by next April.
It is already known, though, that the combined 12% of payroll this will invest in pensions each year is not enough to keep the scheme going in its current form.
When the BBC meets unions to discuss pensions, BECTU will be forcing home the key point that before the management took their pension contribution "holiday", the Corporation was putting in twice as much as staff - much more than the matched payment that will take effect in April 2007.