BBC offers stars protection
Robert Mendick
Hannah Furness
THE BBC will offer protection to stars who receive online abuse and threats when their salaries are published this week.
The corporation’s bosses are braced for attacks on presenters and other high-paid “talent” when the list of stars earning £150,000 or more is made public. A BBC source said: “People are extremely worried about safety, not only for themselves but also their families. There is a worry they will receive a torrent of abuse online.” The list, to be published on Wednesday, will disclose the pay of about 100 stars; a result of pressure on the BBC to be more transparent about how it spends its £3.7 billion of licence fee income.
The BBC said it was aware that celebrities, presenters and journalists on the list – likely to include such household names as Gary Lineker, Laura Kuenssberg and Fiona Bruce – run the risk of attracting widespread abuse online.
The corporation said in a statement: “In terms of support for talent included
in the disclosures we have an established way of dealing with such things.” The BBC refused to discuss further what precise security measures would be taken.
The publication of the list, as revealed by The Sunday Telegraph, is expected to expose a stark gender pay gap with women being paid less to do the same job as men, according to wellplaced sources. The salaries’ list will be scrutinised by the Government’s qualities watchdog, which will consider launching an investigation if any pay gap between men and women emerges.
A spokesman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it would be studying Wednesday’s list closely.
“All public bodies – and that includes the BBC – have a duty to have first rate employment practices and lead the way in equal pay unaffected by gender and race,” said the spokesman.
The spokesman added: “We have not seen the figures and we cannot say anything until they are put in the public domain. But if people come to us with evidence about an organisation then we would obviously ask that organisation to provide us with information on their wages and procedures.”
A leading employment lawyer said the salaries’ list would likely open the BBC up to a number of pay discrimination law suits. The Daily Telegraph understands it will show that in at least some cases women doing the same job as men are being paid less – a clear breach of equal pay laws.
David Mcbride, an employment lawyer with Slater and Gordon, said: “This could lead to a slew of claims. It could open a can of worms for the BBC because suddenly women doing the same jobs as men are going to find out what their male counterparts are earning.”
Damian Collins, the chairman of the Commons Culture committee, said MPS will grill Lord Hall, the BBC’S director-general, when he gives evidence to the BBC’S accounts in the autumn.