TV3 STAR QUITS IN GENDER PAY ROW
Sinéad asked for equality with co-hosts... but station said ‘no’
SINÉAD Desmond has left her presenting job on TV3 because of a dispute over the gender pay gap, the Irish Mail on Sunday can exclusively reveal.
The Dublin-born television personality left her job at the station after a row with bosses over the pay difference between her wages and those of Mark Cagney and Alan Hughes.
The MoS understands that her co-hosts on the sofa earn considerably more and that Sinéad broached the subject with management, but they have refused to meet her request for comparable pay.
A source told the newspaper: ‘She went into them and said she was disgusted at the difference. But they said “no”.
‘They have called her bluff.’
Her decision to quit her Ireland AM role will surprise fans, many of whom have taken to social media to express their concern over her absence.
She has also given voice to the growing anger over the difference between what women and men are paid for doing what seem to be similar jobs, and she has retweeted a number of anti-gender-pay-gap messages in recent months.
Sinéad, 43, has not been seen on TV3 since late August, after the gender-gap issue was brought to national attention as a result of RTÉ’s popular Six One News copresenter, Sharon Ní Bheoláin, spoke out on it.
Confirming her departure this week, a TV3 spokesperson said she was no longer working at the station.
The representative said: ‘Sinéad Desmond has decided to leave Ireland AM after 11 years working on the show. We would like to thank Sinéad and wish her well for the future.’
TV3 insiders argue that there are many variables involved and it’s not just as simple as a gender pay gap.
Mark Cagney has been at TV3 for the past 17 years after joining the station when it was in its infancy. Alan Hughes has been there for more than 15 years and although he is not on the staff he negotiates contract deals that keep him at the Ballymount station.
Sinéad has been at TV3 for the past 11 years.
Length of service is a consideration when salaries are negotiated, TV3 sources say.
The MoS understands that after Sharon Ní Bheoláin revealed that she was on a lower salary than Bryan Dobson, Sinéad broached the subject with station bosses.
The Dalkey-based presenter has been absent from screens since August when she took leave from the station as they tried to resolve the dispute. She hasn’t been back on screen since. And with TV3 unwilling to bend on the issue, Sinéad then took the decision to quit her role. She declined to comment on her departure when approached to speak this week.
However, in the past week she has retweeted a number of tweets that have centred on the subject of pay equality. She was especially active last week and retweeted on a number of accounts with the hashtag ‘EqualPayDay’.
She retweeted a tweet from BBC’s Orla Guerin: ‘When I started full-time work, in 1985, never occurred to me that I or any female colleague might be paid a penny less that a man for the same work. Have learned some lessons since then. #EqualPayDay.’
The phrase ‘EqualPayDay’ refers to the day in the year when women, according to average pay rates, will effectively be working for free, when wages are compared to their male colleagues.
They earn considerably more pay than her Spoke out after Sharon Ní Bheoláin raised issue