Ten women presenters set to sue BBC over pay
... and ITV make audacious bid for Newsnight’s ‘furious’ Emily
AT LEAST ten female BBC presenters are considering taking legal action against the Corporation over its gender pay gap.
News of the planned lawsuit emerged last night as panicked BBC bosses were desperately scrambling to stop rival broadcasters poaching Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis.
On Wednesday the BBC was forced to declare that only a third of its 96 top earners were women – and the top seven were all men.
The female presenters, led by Woman’s Hour host Jane Garvey, were left furious by the revelations and have been contacting each other to work out the best way to force the BBC to close the pay gap.
Using ‘strength in numbers’, they plan to demand equal wages with men or mount a joint lawsuit against the broadcaster. Miss Garvey told The Daily Tele- graph: ‘This is the sisterhood in full flow. I’ve never been so busy on the phone.’
She added that ‘not a single male broadcaster’ had been in touch to offer their support.
At the moment, ten women have joined the rebellion, but others are expected to do so over the coming days.
Miss Maitlis is understood to be ‘furious’ at revelations that she is paid significantly less than Evan Davis, her fellow Newsnight presenter.
Channel 4, Sky and ITV executives are said to be lining up a potential move for 46-year- old Miss Maitlis – with Sky understood to be the most likely to land her should a prospective BBC deal fall through.
It comes following revelations that the highly rated presenter earns less than £150,000 a year – and therefore did not feature on the corporation’s highest earners list – while Davis, 55, earns up to £299,999 a year. Miss Maitlis’s agent, Alex Armitage, yesterday labelled the situation ‘ madness’, and told The Times that terms were still being negotiated.
He said: ‘Emily has been out of contract for a while and contract negotiations have been going on for months.’
A source confirmed that all three rival networks have made enquiries about the Cambridge graduate – but said Miss Maitlis was keen to stay at the BBC.
The insider said: ‘Executives at all three of the major networks have been sniffing around. Emily is incredibly talented, a household name and would slot into any organisation; she could have her pick of channels.
‘Initially, ITV were doing the frontrunning, but Sky would be the most natural fit and have the most opportunities in News. Discussions are still ongoing, and no formal offers have been made, but if the Beeb don’t sort out a new contract, Emily has been told she will be snapped up within a week.
‘But both Emily and her agent are desperate for her to remain at the BBC, and are doing everything to ensure new and improved terms are met. Talks are protracted but moving in the right direction.’ News of a potential move comes after Miss Maitlis made a jibe on stage about the situation.
Referring to the issue at the TechUK conference on Wednesday, she joked: ‘You’re an industry doing so well, soon you’ll be able to afford a BBC man.’
And in an interview with ES Magazine she revealed the best piece of advice she had ever received was to ‘ask for things at work’. She said: ‘My colleague Kavita [Puri] said, “You have to ask for things at work – women sit there waiting for things to come to them and not realising that actu- ally all men are running off asking for them.
‘Things don’t just happen, you don’t get something because you sit politely and are well behaved – that’s not how it works.’
Miss Maitlis is said to be ‘furious’ at the situation, despite being offered a pay rise before details of the list were published.
A source claimed: ‘They made her an offer and she did not accept it. As it stands, her future hangs in the balance. Emily is totally furious as she feels like she has been lied to. For her not to be on the list is unbelievable.’
‘The sisterhood in full flow’