BBC set to hand new jobs to female presenters sidelined for a year
THE BBC is expected to hand new jobs to the five female presenters who have been sidelined by the corporation for almost a year as part of a merger.
The five presenters lost their previous roles as part of the broadcaster’s merging of its domestic and foreign news channels, but have been kept on full pay.
Martine Croxall, Karin Giannone, Annita Mcveigh, Geeta Guru-murthy and Kasia Madera have been unable to work at the broadcaster since the merger was announced, but are now set to be given new on-screen roles, according to The Sunday Times.
The presenters, who between them have more than 100 years of experience working at the BBC, have not appeared on the corporation’s news channel since March as the company established the structure of its slimmed-down rolling news operation.
The broadcaster was facing growing pressure to find a resolution for the veteran female presenters amid increasing anger about the BBC leaving the women in limbo.
The merger between the BBC’S domestic and foreign news channels was planned as part of cuts that led to the axing of dozens of roles, including 10 presenters.
At the time, a BBC source said that the broadcaster would be “working to identify opportunities” within the corporation for those presenters, but it is expected that at least some of them would have to find work elsewhere.
The five chief presenter positions for the channel were announced last February as Matthew Amroliwala, Christian Fraser, Yalda Hakim, Lucy Hockings and Maryam Moshiri.
While some of the talent who lost their jobs after the merger took voluntary redundancy, the five female presenters remained in limbo as they continued to be employed without formal job titles.
Some have filled in for other shifts in other parts of the corporation, while others have largely been kept off-air, which has reportedly irked some colleagues who deem it unfair for them to still be paid. They will have been paid hundreds of thousands of pounds when the broadcaster is seeking to cut costs.
One colleague told The Sunday Times the broadcaster would perform a “reverse ferret” to avoid legal problems with the women, who are all over 45.
The insider said: “They’re all litigious and the National Union of Journalists will back them. Plus, the BBC is short of presenters so there are no grounds to make them redundant.”
In June, Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, was questioned over the situation by the culture, media and sport select committee, with one MP saying it was “absurd” and looked as if the BBC was punishing the presenters.
Mr Davie declined to comment on specific individuals, but said there was “no question that anyone would ever be punished”. He added: “We need a fair, good conversation with those individuals to make sure they are settled.”
The BBC declined to comment when approached by The Daily Telegraph.