BBC strikes abandoned after improved offer

Published Wednesday 19 July 2006 at 17:25 by Nuala Calvi

Strikes by Bectu members at the BBC over pay and pensions have been cancelled, after the corporation’s director-general Mark Thompson tabled a new offer.

The deal includes putting on hold proposals to move to a compulsory retirement age of 65 until the triannual review of the BBC pension scheme next year and deferring an increase in member contributions to the scheme until after the review has taken place.

A pay offer for all BBC staff of 2.8%, up from the original offer of 2.6%, has also been secured. The union will now ballot its members over the proposals.

Bectu’s assistant general secretary Gerry Morrissey commented: “The director-general’s intervention has averted an immediate strike. The BBC now knows that the changes to the retirement age and other key pensions provisions are unacceptable to the union and its members. We believe that the BBC scheme is healthy and will continue to be so into the future and we see no reasons for changes in the short and medium term.”