Following talks held yesterday, BBC director-general Mark Thompson agreed a protection of terms and pensions for staff affected by the privatisation of BBC Broadcast and a two-year halt on the sale of BBC Resources.
Bectu said ballot papers will only be sent out when the BBC has officially confirmed that if BBC Broadcast is sold, there will be no changes in terms and conditions for three years, no compulsory redundancies for 12 months, and access for current staff to a suitable salary pension scheme.
Thompson said he is willing to meet the unions again before the end of the year to review the outcome of the divisional talks on job cuts, which resulted in a 24-hour strike on May 23.
Officials from Bectu, journalists' union NUJ and Amicus, agreed that if assurances made by the BBC are confirmed, it will accept the offer to allow trawls for redundancy volunteers in areas hit by job cuts in return for divisional-level negotiations on the scale of the cuts within each of the BBC's 14 divisions, and the impact on staff who remain.
In a letter published to all unions, the BBC stated: "The BBC has every intention of meeting its legal and union agreement obligations and we believe that the above framework gives all parties a workable structure for ensuring there is detailed consideration of the proposed changes at the appropriate level."
Bectu warned that industrial action could be resumed with seven days' notice if any attempt is made to impose compulsory redundancies.
"To deal with members' concerns that too many redundancies could put an extra burden on staff who remain working for the BBC, unions gave the BBC notice that work-to-rule protests could be organised if managers release too many volunteers," Bectu said.
Bectu will run three separate ballots of members who work for the BBC, BBC Broadcast and BBC Resources, and aims to complete the procedure by the end of June.
The NUJ has reported that it plans a meeting of representatives on June 15 before proceeding.
The row over the future of BBC employers comes after Thompson announced his plans for 3,850 job cuts in December 2004.
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