Egalité

BBC HR chief Valerie Hughes D'Aeth has issued her constitutional plan for the New Republic, tearing down the terms and conditions of the Ancien Regime, and embarking on a country-wide roadshow to take the sans-culottes with her, culminating in a London rally on Bastille Day.

The personnel firebrand has also proposed a few extra sous, to encourage the staff to come with her on a journey to simplicity and transparency, across the marshlands of Conservative public sector pay policy. If they provide Val with the acclamation she seeks, theirs will be 1%  this year, from August 1st (backdated if the acclamation is prolonged) and 1.75% the following year.

It's powerful stuff.

BBC Sick Pay becomes BBC Health Absence Pay. No paid time to see the doctor or dentist.

Rotas and schedules become "Working Patterns" - and you'll be classed as either Fixed, Shift or Variable. Lower ranks only, of course.

"Overtime" is dead, and the principle is time off in return, rather than money in your pay packet. Shift workers are the exception; under the "Managing Additional Hours Policy", there's no dosh, ever, ever, ever, for the first 30 minutes. If you get to 15% on top of your basic in salary in "Additional Hours" payments, you will be called in for a "Wellbeing Review", because, I assume, it's your fault if your manager keeps asking you to do overtime additional hours.

People currently in receipt of "Unpredictability Allowances" will still get them, but they'll be frozen. Your manager will be entitled to muck around with your "working pattern" up to two weeks in advance, and after that, can still change your shift start time by up to three hours.

No expenses claims for alcohol.

Flying: premium economy ok for flights longer than six hours, if you're working on touch down; business class for flights longer than eight hours, again, if you can show you're working when you land.

Gone are grades; in comes a Career Path Framework, and you'll all be mapped into new 'market-informed Job Pay Ranges'. This deserves a separate post....