WORK TO RULE AT BBC HALTED PENDING NEW VOTE

BECTU have suspended a work-to-rule while members vote on a new expenses policy.
A postal ballot of members, except those in BBC Resources Limited, is being run, following the BBC's decision this week to make significant changes to new expenses rules which were imposed without agreement in February.
Members in Resources Limited, the subsidiary company which has opted out of the Corporation's central expenses policy, will not be balloted. The company plans to re-introduce their original expenses rules, and has been told by the union that, as far as meal payments and overnights are concerned, the dispute is effectively over.
Details of the revised BBC expenses policy were outlined to union representatives at a meeting on April 10, and the final draft of the new policy has now been published.
A number of changes to the rules governing meals and late night and early morning transport were made in response to union comments on April 10. Members have been advised by the union to obtain copies of the final draft directly from management, or from the BBC's internal communications systems, to ensure that they have the most up-to-date version.
Ballot papers were due to be mailed to members on April 17. In a letter accompanying the ballot forms, members are being advised to vote in favour of the amended expenses rules.
The union say the revised expenses regulations represent a significant improvement for many members in the BBC, and if they are rejected the union will need to run another industrial action ballot before resuming any work-to-rule.
In Resources Limited it is understood that the management have reverted to the pre-February status quo. Exact details of the new policy in Resources Limited have still to be agreed with management, who have already tabled a draft document. However the union have been assured that the company intends to start paying expenses exactly as they would have done before February, with the exception of travel claims.
London Operations, part of Resources Limited, introduced new rules on payment of travel costs and travel time in March, separately from the change in national expenses rules, and management now want to extend the controversial ‘excess travel’ formula across the rest of the company.
The formula has been resisted in London Operations by a work-to-rule which the union plans to continue.
BECTU, the only union at the BBC which organised official industrial action when the controversial expenses changes were made in February, have hailed the Corporation's change of heart as a major breakthrough.
The BBC's announcement that they were to climb down came as the work-to-rule by BECTU members entered its seventh week. (CD)