BBC pay and pensions deal accepted

Bectu's BBC members have voted to accept a 2.8% pay increase and watered-down changes to pension benefits.
In a postal ballot 61.4% of members in the BBC voted in favour of the package, which was tabled by management last month in the face of a strike threat.
Members in BBC Worldwide accepted the deal with an 89.7% majority in favour, while 82.7% of those working for BBC Resources, voting only on the pension changes, accepted.
Results in a parallel ballot of the NUJ's journalist members produced an opposite result with 59.4% voting to reject the pay and pensions offer.
Neither union made any recommendation on which way members were advised to vote - a condition imposed by the BBC when it tabled the compromise package.
Bectu expects that the BBC will implement the 2.8% increase in time for the rise to appear in August pay packets. The increase also applies to more than 80 ex-BBC staff in Scotland who transferred to Siemens this summer when the company took charge of the technology infrastructure of a new broadcast centre in Glasgow.
Representatives from BECTU, NUJ, and Amicus (which has yet to declare the result of its ballot) plan to meet on September 1 to discuss their joint response to the BBC, given the disparate ballot results.
(GB)