Mark Thompson Email to BBC Staff on Pensions Debate

Director General of the BBC, Mark Thompson has emailed staff to update them on the ongoing pensions debate.  The email comes on the day that the BBC's journalistic staff voted in favour of strike action over the issue.

Dear All,

I promised to come back to you in early September once we'd had a chance to look in detail at all the comments and suggestions you've put forward on the initial pension proposals. Thank you all for your contributions to the consultation so far.

The challenges we face with our pension arrangements are acute and our proposals were correspondingly tough. They represent disappointing news for most in the BBC Pension Scheme so I'm not surprised that many of you have told us how worried you are about them. But you've also made some specific points:

· many staff have expressed a concern that the proposed 1% cap on the future growth of pensionable pay could mean that previously accrued pension would reduce in real terms

· quite a few have also said they are worried that, under the proposed cap, future promotion would have little effect on their future pension

· although staff seem to accept that the proposed new Defined Contribution scheme is a competitive one, many have said they would prefer a lower risk alternative – ideally one which would also allow them to ensure that the pension they'd already accrued could be protected in real terms

As I said in August our room for manoeuvre is limited. We are facing a large pension deficit and must act now to reduce it. But we would like to meet your concerns as far as we can.

During the last few weeks, we have been talking to the joint unions to discuss the areas where there may be scope for alternatives. We've looked at a number of options and are now in the process of working up the details of what we believe could be an additional workable proposal. We expect to be ready to announce full details in the middle of September and we anticipate that this will trigger an additional consultation period.

In the meantime, we remain committed to hearing your views and communicating with you regularly.

All the best,

Mark Thompson
Director-General