Mark Thompson has told BBC staff today that he and other senior executives will give up their pension top-ups, a move which will reduce his own total remuneration by 20%.

The BBC director general told a meeting with staff called to discuss controversial changes to the corporation's generous final-salary pension scheme that the move will save about £650,000 a year.

Thompson's own remuneration will fall from £838,000 to £619,000 next year as a result, although that includes a lower salary after he agreed to give up one month's pay in 2010 and 2011. Even when that month's salary is restored, however, he will see his remuneration fall by 20% to £675,000.

"As part of the broader reform of pensions at the BBC we have decided to stop the payments of pensions supplements to executives ... I think it is the right thing to do," Thompson told staff, confirming a move he first suggested in August.

He added: "It is very important there is one set of schemes and choices in the BBC so for some directors this means very substantial reductions in the amount of remuneration they get."

Thompson also said union members who have voted to take part in two 48-hour strikes in the next month should "reflect" on whether the dates chosen by officials for the industrial action were the right ones.

They have been timed to coincide with the Conservative conference next week, which could take BBC coverage of David Cameron's speech to delegates off air, and chancellor George Osborne's spending review announcement on 20 October.

Thompson said he had stood on picket lines in the past, but "everyone at the BBC should put the public first". "The public should get undisrupted high quality services," he added.

He also questioned the timing of the planned strikes. "Is this the right moment to strike? We're still at the start of a process and are still working through the detail with the unions. It's not that talks have broken down or there's an unbridgeable gap."

He said he was "disturbed" by the dates selected, echoing the concerns of leading BBC News journalists and presenters, including Jeremy Paxman, Nick Robinson and Martha Kearney, who have written to their union representative voicing their concerns about the timing of the strike.

"On the Guardian website some of our colleagues in news and current affairs working on political programmes have written an open letter to the NUJ," Thompson noted, saying he shared their view.

BBC executives hope confirmation of the move will help to dampen unrest at the corporation among staff who are furious about the pension proposals.

Staff who belong to broadcasting union Bectu and the National Union of Journalists voted last week to back strike action unless management came back with an improved deal by Friday 1 October.

Thompson said negotiations were not at an end but struck a defiant note by insisting to staff that: "There is no doubt there is a [pension fund] deficit."

Officials from the NUJ, Bectu and Unite are due to hold a final joint meeting tomorrow to discuss the proposed industrial action, with the first 48-hour stoppage due to begin next Tuesday, 5 October.


By:- James Robinson

Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep/30/mark-thompson-bbc-pension