BBC staff fear strike action inevitable after anger at 1% pay rise offer

Unions reject proposed below-inflation increase which comes as corporation prepares to cut thousands of jobs BBC staff fear a strike is on the horizon at the broadcaster after anger over a below-inflation pay rise offer made amid plans to cut thousands of jobs. There is widespread consternation among staff at the offer of a 1% increase, seen as derisory given that inflation is running at almost three times that level. Staff across the BBC are also worried about their jobs as the corporation is in the process of making cuts and redundancies that could result in as many as 2,000 people leaving over the next three years. Unions have rejected the pay offer and some staff see industrial action as inevitable, with some already raising the prospect of measures short of a full strike, such as working to rule – where workers refuse to undertake tasks and duties outside the remit of their job, and work strictly to contracted hours. It represents another early challenge for the new director general, Matt Brittin, who is having to spend the opening months of his tenure announcing and agreeing a cuts programme that had been in the works before his arrival. Falling licence fee revenue means the