Outrage as BBC boss boasts: My legacy is solving gender pay gap
‘Forget about a pat on the back’
THE head of the BBC last night faced a backlash after saying he wants to be remembered for ‘solving’ the broadcaster’s equal pay crisis.
Director-general Tony Hall has overseen a bitter row at the heart of the corporation – with women filing complaints in which they claimed they were paid less than male colleagues for equal work.
China editor Carrie Gracie resigned in 2018 after discovering she was earning tens of thousands less than men in similar roles, accusing the BBC of a ‘secretive and illegal’ pay culture.
But yesterday Lord Hall, who is due to leave the broadcaster this summer after seven years, shifted the blame for the crisis.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show, he said: ‘I inherited bluntly a system where you didn’t know if you were being paid equally. In the middle of that huge reform people raised equal pay cases... so I hope that to be solving those issues is how I will be judged.’
Last night, the head of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee criticised Lord Hall for claiming he had resolved the inequality.
Conservative MP Julian Knight told the Daily Mail: ‘I think “solving” is overstating his success. The BBC before Lord Hall’s tenure allowed a culture of unequal pay to grow but under his watch it has been too slow in dealing with hundreds of legitimate claims. Lord Hall, I know, clearly cares about the issue, but perhaps he ought to forget about any pats on the back.’
A BBC insider told the Mail: ‘It’s not about whether you resolve these cases eventually, it’s the manner in which you do it and the toll that your attitude and your approach takes on the women concerned’.
They added: ‘Women in the BBC have had to drag the corporation kicking and screamthe ing to meet its legal obligations around equal pay.’
On the Marr show, Lord Hall said many organisations had been ‘complacent’ about ensuring women were paid on a par with men and admitted the BBC had been ‘too top down’ in its approach to pay.
The BBC must do things ‘more simply’ and look at spending ‘money wisely’ after pandemic, he said. Addressing the £125million hit taken by the broadcaster during lockdown, he said: ‘I hope that there will be a big debate about the best way of funding the BBC.’
Lord Hall, 69, appointed accountancy giant PwC and law firm Eversheds to examine the earnings of rank and file staff at the BBC in 2017 in a major salary review after it was forced to publish the pay of its 96 highest-paid stars. Just a third of them were female.
More than 40 female presenters last year called on Lord Hall to address the pay disparity.
This month it emerged viewers could be forced to pay more for their licences, which cost £157.50 a year, if they live in an expensive house. A source told news website Tortoise the charge could vary based on a person’s council tax band.
Earlier this year the Government threatened to scrap the licence fee – which helps fund the broadcaster.