BBC pensions dispute threatens Proms night

The concert at the Royal Albert Hall in central London, which is famous for its traditional rousing chorus of Land Of Hope And Glory, is due to be shown live on BBC1 and BBC2 on September 11.

Broadcasting union Bectu sent out ballot papers to its 5,000 members at the corporation on Thursday asking them if they were prepared to strike in a dispute over pensions. Members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) working for the BBC are also being balloted.

If they vote to take action, the Proms and other live events, including coverage of party political conferences, could be hit.

Bectu's assistant general secretary Luke Crawley said: "People at the BBC very rarely go on strike and with many shows being pre-recorded all that is needed is a manager to press a button to transmit it.

"But it seems to me that this time there could be an impact and there may be dark screens.

"Anything live would be hard for the BBC to do because you can't pre-record a live event."

A BBC spokeswoman said: "We know that staff have concerns about the proposed changes but we will continue to listen and try to address these during the 90-day consultation period."

NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said: "I've never witnessed such anger at a BBC proposal. People feel betrayed by the BBC's broken promises on pensions."