Women’s fears over pay gap as BBC probe staff gender ‘identity’

THE BBC is facing a backlash over attempts to force its staff to tell bosses what gender they identify as in a survey of thousands of employees.

A group of women at the Corporation fear that asking workers to identify whether they consider themselves to be male or female – rather than what sex they are – could distort gender pay gap figures.

The Mail on Sunday understands that furious female employees have written to director-general Tim Davie and director of creative diversity June Sarpong to complain that men could swap their gender to female.

Sources said that the staff are yet to be given a satisfactory response as to why the new rule has been implemented, so have now approached campaign group Sex Matters to fight their corner.

A BBC insider said: ‘There is a group of female staff who are deeply fearful of what this means for the female workforce.

‘They have been told that all staff have to identify by their gender which is dangerous as it gives an inaccurate account of the gender diversity at the BBC. It’s ridiculous because they are trying to ensure they are diverse.

‘The ramifications on promotions and pay shouldn’t be underestimated here.

‘These women fear there could be a skewed view of how many women are being employed and at what levels and pay.

‘What is becoming more and more frustrating for them is that despite a really long email trail, they haven’t received any kind of answer as to why this is happening. They have an expensive creative diversity director but still nothing.’

One BBC staffer described the correspondence with Mr Davie and Ms Sarpong as ‘Orwellian’.

Last night, the BBC confirmed it is collecting gender information from all of its 20,000 staff.

A spokesman said freelance staff are not currently included in the BBC’s gender pay gap reports.

They declined to comment on the email trail between the women and Mr Davie and Ms Sarpong.

Following reports of a significant gender pay gap at the BBC in 2017, a group called BBC Women was formed to fight for equality in salaries between male and female staff at the organisation.

One of its figureheads, Carrie Gracie, resigned from her post as China editor in January 2018 after finding out she earned significantly less than male journalists in similar jobs at the BBC.

In January 2020, presenter Samira Ahmed won her sex discrimination equal pay claim against the broadcaster.

The BBC hired Ms Sarpong as its first diversity chief in 2019. She is paid a salary of £275,000 for a three-day week.