Special

The BBC, whilst professing total modernity in its new deal with the unions, has left an number of old-style wrinkles in play.

A joint-working group made up of managers and unions will investigate how weekend working should be recognised, facilitated by an independent mediator and will report back on whether (note: not if) that should be extra remuneration or time. So when you join the BBC, it may not be plain to you that a lot of key broadcasting, in the arts, entertainment and sport, happens at the weekend, and that, from time to time, all sorts of people need to support that broadcasting. (Except, of course, in newsgathering, where most domestic correspondents expect to get the weekend off and Joe Lynam covers everything.)

And increments get a lifeline: for the first two years of the deal all staff who are low in their pay range will get incremental increases of 1.5% within their band (grade).  After the two years have passed the BBC and unions will start new negotiations on how a ringfenced pool of funding, which matches the increments paid out, will be used to progress salaries. 

So time equals money, and payment for experience disrupts equal pay.