The BBC has offered a flat rate increase of £475 to all staff earning less than £37,726 per year. The flat rate is equivalent to an increase of 1.2% for staff paid at the upper limit. Under the BBC's proposals, staff paid over £37,726 would receive nothing.
Responding to management's presentation on 10 June, the joint unions (including BECTU and the NUJ), told the BBC they would consider any proposal for a longer term pay deal but in the event of a one-year pay settlement they could not consider an agreement that was less than the BBC's licence fee settlement.
In addition, the unions stressed the importance of securing a rise, which increases rates at the bottom and top of each pay band. The unions also put the case that, while there was common ground with the BBC in wanting to give additional help to the lower paid, the proposed salary cap for receipt of the flat rate increase was too low.
According to the NUJ, a third of broadcast journalists and senior broadcast journalists would receive no pay rise under the BBC's proposal.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: "We appreciate the BBC is trying to cut the cake to help the lowest paid but it is unacceptable that a third of journalists would receive no pay rise and that for the third year running BBC staff are being offered a deal that is significantly below inflation and significantly below the rise in the licence fee. Quite simply, the cake isn't big enough.
"BBC staff have taken on additional workloads in the wake of thousands of job losses, are paying more for their pensions and it is time the BBC recognised their outstanding contribution to maintaining quality across the BBC." The joint union pay claim seeks a clear commitment from the BBC to promote staff who act up in senior roles for at least two years; the unions also want to protect existing agreements on the redeployment of staff faced with redundancy.
The unions are demanding the organisation requires all of its contractors to pay the London living wage - currently £7.85 per hour - as an absolute minimum. A further response from the BBC is expected on Wednesday 30 June.
