More than 90 per cent of members of the National Union of Journalists, BECTU and Unite voted in support of strikes but 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, suggested the introduction of a 1 per cent cap on increases in pensionable salary and the closure of the final-salary scheme to new joiners.
Staff unions responded with calls for the BBC to drop the proposals, but the broadcaster insisted it would continue with its 90-day consultation period. After talks broke down the unions said they would ballot members for strike action.
Commenting on the ballot result for NUJ members, general secretary Jeremy Dear said in a release that the volume of support reflects the anger felt by members.
"The massive scale of this vote is unprecedented – it is a reflection of the wave of anger and sense of betrayal which has greeted the BBC's attempted pensions robbery. BBC management have an opportunity to avoid deeply damaging strike action by guaranteeing the value of pensions already earned and withdrawing their punitive and draconian proposals."
Peter Skyte, national officer for Unite added: "Our members have decisively demonstrated their opposition to the BBC's pensions and pay proposals. The BBC needs to think again about stealing pension benefits already earned and retaining a defined benefit pension scheme in order to regain the trust and support of its workforce for the challenging times that face the organisation in the future."
Joint union representatives met in London today to consider the ballot results and to receive a briefing on talks with BBC management during August.
The NUJ says that union representatives have since decided these talks will continue until mid-September, when the BBC is expected to offer further proposals.
Any announcement on strike dates will be deferred until that time, it added.
In an email sent out to staff earlier today, BBC director general Mark Thompson said the proposals were "tough" in order to tackle the challenges the broadcaster faced over its pension arrangements.
"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."
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