BBC to cap payoffs for senior staff

The BBC is consult on proposals for a redundancy and severance pay cap of £150,000 (€176,000) from September 2013 for all BBC senior managers.

Under the proposals, changes will be made to redundancy, severance entitlement and notice periods for all senior managers including the BBC Director-General.

BBC Director-General Tony Hall said: “The BBC cannot be deaf to concerns about BBC staff pay-offs. These are difficult economic times for people across the country and the BBC is not immune from them. The financial settlements of the past cannot be justified in the future. We will consult on these proposals over the coming weeks but I believe they represent a fair way forward for staff and for licence fee payers. I appreciate that making changes to existing contracts is never easy. But it is to the great credit of the senior leadership team at the BBC that there is broad recognition of the need for change.”

The proposals would entitle senior managers to redundancy of one month’s pay for each year of service up to a maximum of 12 months’ salary or £150,000 – whichever is the lower.

As part of the new guidelines, all BBC Executive Board members would have their notice period reduced from 12 months to six months. Where staff resign or are made redundant they would be expected to work their notice in full.