The BBC is proposing a pay cap of £320,000 for its news presenters following an outcry about the size of the salaries of its highest paid stars. The change will only affect a handful of people but forms part of a wider restructuring of pay of on-air staff. Some presenters have already agreed to a pay cut amid criticism of disparities between male and female colleagues. Meanwhile, women at the BBC have told MPs they faced "veiled threats" when they raised the subject of equal pay.
More than 150 women put forward written evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which includes claims of unequal pay. BBC director general Tony Hall and Carrie Gracie will be questioned on Wednesday by the committee. Gracie quit as the BBC's China editor over "pay discrimination" this month. A separate independent review, to be published by auditors PwC on Tuesday, will look at the pay and diversity of presenters, correspondents and on-air talent. BBC media editor Amol Rajan says the proposed £320,000 cap has not yet been fully agreed or signed off and will apply only to on-air staff working full time. It will affect presenters, editors and correspondents, who will be given time to respond to the proposals. However, it is not clear whether on air-staff will be able to earn more from other BBC work, for instance on entertainment programmes. 'No confidence' The National Union of Journalists and the BBC Women group have criticised the BBC's record on equal pay ahead of the MPs' inquiry into the issue. BBC Women, a group that represents female BBC journalists and producers, said it had "no confidence in the on-air review" because it had not been consulted and felt it had "been excluded from the process".
Image copyrightPA/BBCImage caption The salaries of Chris Evans and Claudia Winkleman were among those revealed last summer "We believe there is a wider culture of gender discrimination, which can be seen in patterns of promotion, especially after women take maternity leave." They added: "While individual BBC managers have been supportive there is still a bunker mentality in some quarters and women have experienced veiled threats made against them when they raised the subject of equal pay." The group included several individual testimonies in its evidence to MPs, including one from former BBC Scotland health correspondent, Eleanor Bradford.
How the BBC gender pay story unfolded Chris Evans tops list of best-paid stars Bradford said she discovered she "was one of the lowest-paid correspondents at BBC Scotland, despite regularly appearing on UK-wide news and delivering exclusive stories". She said she regularly asked for a pay rise and eventually was given a £5,000 increase but it was not backdated and she remained around £10,000 below some male colleagues doing exactly the same job. She subsequently left the BBC. Thirteen further cases have been put forward anonymously. They include: A TV news presenter who said she "had been sitting next to a man doing an identical job who was being paid tens of thousands of pounds more... I am told that we are now being paid at the same rate per day, but there is no transparency" A BBC reporter who found her full time equivalent salary for making identical programmes was about half her male counterpart A sports broadcaster who has worked for the BBC for almost 30 years, both as staff and freelance, who found her £500 pay on a flagship radio programmes was less than half of the male presenter
A regional news presenter who after becoming aware that her male colleague's salary was a third more than the figure she had been offered was given a 5% increase
An award-winning broadcaster on a flagship arts programme said she found her male colleague was being paid 50% more per show. "When I asked for (the) pay gap to be corrected the line manager told me 'the BBC doesn't do equal pay', and that in raising the issue I was being 'aggressive'. I refused to back down and eventually was given the same rate as my male colleague and it was backdated".
source: www.bbc.com
No comments:
Post a Comment