Fixing BBC gender pay gap will cost ‘tens of millions’
Shock for licence fee payers as women demand backdated rises
THE BBC faces a huge bill for compensating dozens of women it has underpaid, it emerged last night.
More than 120 female staff have lodged formal grievances against the Corporation, following the controversy that exploded last summer.
Most of the women taking action against the BBC are demanding pay rises to put them level with male colleagues.
But many also want backdated payments to compensate them for the income and pension contributions they have missed out on in the past. Last night, experts warned that the claims could easily cost the Corporation tens of millions of pounds.
As most of the money comes from the licence fee, which is currently £147 a year and pegged to inflation, there are fears money that would normally go towards making programmes will now be diverted.
It comes as the BBC prepares to publish a review of pay arrangements for on-air presenters, editors and correspondents today. It is understood the BBC will admit it has got ‘some’ presenters’ pay wrong but insist it doesn’t have a ‘systematic’ problem.
However, MPs last night published damning evidence from BBC Women – a coalition of 170 female staff including Victoria Derbyshire, Mishal Husain and Kirsty Wark – and the National Union of Journalists.
MPs are due to grill the Corporation’s director-general Lord Hall tomorrow.
The evidence released yesterday included 14 cases ‘of inequality of pay’, detailing a string of examples of female staff being underpaid. The MPs – from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee – said it appeared the BBC had a ‘deeper cultural problem’ with gender pay than previously thought. In other developments last night:
The broadcaster was accused of making ‘veiled threats’ and ‘deliberately misleading’ women who raised equal pay complaints;
The BBC was told it should adopt a public sector attitude to pay instead of using market forces to justify inflated salaries;
The BBC promised to be more transparent with staff, claiming it was ‘at the vanguard of … change’.
Yesterday, BBC Women urged the Corporation to settle the cases rather than fight an ‘unwinnable’ battle in court. ‘The BBC should avoid wasting licence fee money on an unwinnable court fight against their female workers over equal pay and immediately agree to independent arbitration to settle individual cases, including back pay and pension adjustments,’ the group said in a submission to MPs.
Along with Lord Hall, former China editor Carrie Gracie will be questioned about the pay gap row tomorrow. Miss Gracie was born in Bahrain while her Scottish oil executive father was on assignment there, and educated in Aberdeenshire and Glasgow before studying at Edinburgh University.
She resigned from her role earlier this month, citing the BBC’s ‘secretive and illegal pay culture’.
The Corporation has been scrambling to resolve as many of the pay disputes as possible before it publishes a major review of presenter pay this morning.
The report, compiled by management consultancy firm PwC, will examine all levels of the Corporation. But it has met criticism from the BBC’s female staff who say there is ‘no clarity around the people included in it’ and that it is likely to paint a skewed picture.
The corporation has not said whether it will settle with staff or take the matter to court. But official sources confirmed that it is trying to ‘address’ the problems raised by individual employees.
The BBC yesterday rejected the notion that it has acted illegally.
‘Unwinnable court fight’