BBC staff have called off a strike which threatened to affect coverage of next week's Conservative Party conference. Journalists, technicians and other broadcast staff had been due to walk out on October 5 and 6 over a pension dispute. But the National Union of Journalists said the BBC had made a "significant new offer" over the proposed cuts. If it is rejected, a further four days of strike action could go ahead.
NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: "We have received in the past few hours what we consider to be a significant new offer from the BBC. "There are still some issues to be clarified around it, so we're going to consult with our members and see what they think of it. But we have achieved a great deal in terms of making the BBC move from their original, extremely punitive proposals to something we think is fairer."
The strike call came after a BBC announcement of plans to cap pensionable pay at 1% from next April and revalue pensions at a lower level. Mr Dear added: "We're not saying it's a done deal yet - we're going to consult with members and therefore in order for that to happen we've called off the first two strike dates, but we've left two strike days on the 19 and 20 October and been given the authority by our members to call further strike dates should that be necessary."
BBC's new pension offer:
- Lower employee contributions in CAB 2011 from 7% to 6%.
- Increases to pensions in payment will be the lower of CPI and 4% in CAB 2011.
- Annual revaluation of accrued pension will also have a limit of the lower of CPI and 4%.
- Joint discretion between the BBC and the Trustees to award a higher percentage for revaluation purposes.
- An AVC-matching facility in the new DC scheme for non-pensionable overtime and allowances.
