TalkTalk paid men doing same job as me 40% more
IT expert in gender claim
A FORMER TalkTalk director has accused the telecoms giant of giving male colleagues bonuses up to three times higher than hers, an employment tribunal heard yesterday.
Rebecca Burke, 43, who led the company’s cyber-security team after it was hacked in 2013, said men doing the same job were paid 40 per cent more and claims she lost out on £252,000 in pay and bonuses because of her gender.
The IT expert said she was left ‘completely shocked’ after being sacked by TalkTalk in an alleged ‘sham’ redundancy.
Her legal action is the latest in a string of high-profile gender discrimination cases against Britain’s biggest companies and has drawn the support of prominent campaigners.
She was supported at the tribunal yesterday by former BBC China editor Carrie Gracie, who spent months fighting the corporation for fair pay.
Mrs Burke was paid £110,000 a year by TalkTalk after being hired in April 2015 to lead a £30 million pilot project to install broadband to tens of thousands of homes in York.
Soon afterwards she was appointed director of a security programme after a massive data breach of customers’ details plunged the company into the crisis. The breach cost the company £60 million, and Mrs Burke was paid a £26,000 discretionary bonus for her work on the cleanup operation.
But after being made redundant in May 2017, she discovered that male colleagues were paid up to £82,000 in one- off bonuses as well as salaries of up to 40 per cent more than her.
Tribunal documents detail how one colleague was entitled to up to £172,000 more in pay and bonuses than her over a near two-year period, despite carrying out similar work.
In her witness statement to the London Central tribunal, Mrs Burke said: ‘I believe that my redundancy was a sham.
‘I had not, previously to the redundancy process, appreciated that my colleagues were regarded as more senior and paid more than me. It certainly did not reflect what I saw as the reality of the situation.’
She is claiming sex discrimination, unfair dismissal and failure to provide equal pay.
Outside the hearing, Miss
‘My redundancy was a sham’
Gracie said it was unclear if the BBC had learned its lesson from the equal-pay debacle.
She said the issue should be a key concern to the next BBC director-general after Tony Hall said he was standing down.
Addressing Mrs Burke’s case, she added: ‘Rebecca has been through a long ordeal and I hope it’s nearly over.’
The tribunal heard yesterday that when raising her employment grievance three months after being made redundant, Mrs Burke unearthed an email in which staff criticised her ‘audacity’ for approaching a former colleague for information about pay. She told the company that the discovery had caused her ‘substantial distress’ and was evidence of colleagues discussing her in a derogatory way.
The latest data shows that TalkTalk has a gender pay gap of 12.9 per cent in relation to hourly pay. The company denies Mrs Burke’s claims and said her job was not comparable to that of the male employees. A spokesman said: ‘We strongly refute these claims and we do not tolerate gender discrimination of any sort, including with regards to pay.’
The hearing continues.