NEW BBC EXPENSES RULES AGREED

BECTU members have voted to accept revised expenses rules in a postal ballot.
The ballot result revealed that more than 90 per cent of BBC members who participated had voted in favour of the Corporation's second attempt to overhaul their expenses structure in less than six weeks.
An earlier effort to introduce changes led to a BBC-wide work-to-rule after new expenses regulations were imposed without agreement at the beginning of February.
After several weeks of administrative chaos, the BBC backed down in early April, and announced that many of the most controversial restrictions on expenses would be reversed.
BECTU, the only BBC union which had organised official industrial action against the unpopular February rules. recommended that members should accept the compromise announced in April when they received their ballot papers.
However, the union are still pressing for talks on the detail of the revised expenses regulations. In particular, there are concerns about the issuing of personal charge cards to staff who are likely to spend money on behalf of the BBC, and the abolition of scale rate payments for meals and hotels is still causing difficulties in some areas.
Staff working for BBC Worldwide and BBC Resources did not take part in the ballot since their expenses are no longer governed by the BBC's central rules.
BBC Resources did impose the flawed Corporation-wide expenses policy on their staff in February, but have now opted out. In the middle of April, the company reverted to their pre-February rules, with the exception of travel payments, where a punitive ‘excess mileage’ formula is being applied.
BBC Resources rule on travel payments is one of the issues which underlies the current work-to-rule in London Operations, the company's largest department.
BECTU now plan to inform the BBC about the outcome of the ballot, and will emphasise the need for any future changes to expenses to go through a formal process of negotiation.
In the run-up to the February changes, BBC management claimed expenses were not a negotiable issue. Union officials believe that the Corporation's embarrassing volte-face would not have been necessary if full negotiations had taken place.
In the postal ballot, 984 members voted in favour of the compromise expenses rules, with 103 against. 3944 papers were issued, giving a participation rate of 27.5 per cent. (CD)