Daily Mail

ITN stars’ fury over gender pay gap of 20%

- By Emily Kent Smith Media and Technology Reporter

WOMEN working at TV news producer ITN attacked ‘staggering inequality’ at the company yesterday as it revealed a 19.6 per cent gender pay gap.

In briefings, chief executive John Hardie was heckled by staff of both sexes, who said they had been raising the issue for years.

Workers asked the boss, who took home £1.2million in 2016, if he would hand back his bonus.

A report by ITN, which makes daily news shows for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, found 44 per cent of its employees were women, but 17 out of the 20 top earners were male.

The company has a mean average gender pay gap of 19.6 per cent and a mean average gap for bonuses of 77 per cent, the report said. The equivalent pay gap at the BBC is 9.3 per cent. In the top quartile of earners at ITN, men were paid 12.9 per cent more than women. Only 34.5 per cent of people in this category were women.

Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman said ITN had had ‘many opportunit­ies’ to sort out the problem and called the figures ‘appalling’.

She added: ‘I staged a sit-in at the BBC to press the director-general on the gender pay gap there. Now the ITN boss is getting a taste of the robust journalism he pays us to deliver. It’s a terrible shame many women across the company haven’t, on average, been paid as much as the men to ask those questions until now.’

Another source said: ‘People are shocked by the scale of it – they thought it would be on the same level as the BBC. ITN has been a bit sanctimoni­ous about it … “awful BBC”, “isn’t that terrible” … so hypocritic­al.’

Mr Hardie was met with ‘fury’ and ‘ dismay’ when he confirmed the figures. He told staff in an email: ‘Clearly, this isn’t where we want to be and we must redouble our efforts to change.’

At yesterday’s meeting ITV evening news presenter Mary Nightingal­e told him: ‘ Yet again women are expected to be patient and good and waiting as usual,’ Buzzfeed News reported.

Describing the gap as ‘staggering inequality’, Miss Newman said: ‘People were angry. Senior women have been pressing the company for years to come clean on the gender pay gap.’

She said staff left Mr Hardie ‘in no doubt how they felt’, adding: ‘At least now, belatedly, action is being taken.’

Tory MP Maria Miller, of the women and equalities committee, tweeted: ‘Will ITN attempt to blame a lack of experience­d women or unconsciou­s bias? … Best to accept this is discrimina­tion.’

ITN said it would ‘significan­tly’ reduce the gap – ‘ mainly caused by there being fewer women than men in many of the most senior roles’ – within five years.

Mr Hardie said: ‘Solving these long-term issues will not happen overnight but ITN is committed to tackling the root causes.’

‘This is discrimina­tion’

 ??  ?? Presenters: Cathy Newman and Julie Etchingham
Presenters: Cathy Newman and Julie Etchingham

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