Lord Hall said the measures bring the BBC into greater alignment with other industry bodies and the Civil Service, who have a similar pay cap.

BBC: pay-offs to be capped at ?150,000

The strike follows a 24-hour-walkout this week by hundreds of court staff in the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union over a 2% pay cap.

BBC: Council workers in strike action

Afterwards, a spokesman for the GMB union told the BBC that its general secretary, Paul Kenny, had written to senior Labour officials saying that the decision to back the public sector pay cap was a "most serious mistake".

BBC: Dave Prentis