Breakdown of BBC stike ballot shows strong support for industrial action

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The results of BBC staff union ballots in opposition to pension proposals show that thousands of staff voted in favour of industrial action, with one ballot returning 100 per cent support for strikes.

But the unions have said that any action will be put on hold until mid-September when the BBC says it will announce additional pension proposals to address the concerns of members. The proposals put forward in June indicated that a 1 per cent cap on increases in pensionable salary could be introduced as well the closure of the final-salary scheme to new joiners.

After talks broke down between the unions and the BBC, the NUJ, BECTU and Unite said they would all ballot their members for strike action.

More than 97 per cent of NUJ members within BBC staff voted in support of action short of a strike while just under 94 per cent voted in favour of full strike action.

A total of 2,250 members of the BBC staff turned out to vote in the ballot, 2,237 of which voted for action short of striking.

NUJ members of the BBC Worldwide staff also voted in favour of action short of striking at 96 per cent, compared to 88 per cent in favour of strike action.

BECTU held three ballots; BBC wide, BBC Studios and Post Production and BBC Worldwide. In the BBC Worldwide ballot, 100 per cent of voters said they were prepared to strike.

In the BBC wide ballot nearly 90 per cent of members who voted did so in support of striking, while 97.5 per cent said they were prepared to take action short of a strike.

Unite has not yet responded to a request for a breakdown of its ballot results.