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BBC women denounce unequal pay as heat rises for broadcaster

By Estelle Shirbon

 

The main entrance to the BBC headquarters and studios in Portland Place, London, Britain, July 16, 2015. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Women working for the BBC have complained they were paid less than men in equivalent jobs and have accused managers of misleading them about their pay to hide widespread gender discrimination at the public broadcaster.

 

The complaints by BBC Women, a group of 170 staff, were sent to parliament's media committee, which is investigating BBC pay after the corporation was forced to disclose last July that two- thirds of on-air high earners were men and that some were paid far more than female peers.

 

The revelations caused a spate of bad headlines for the BBC and angered many female staff, who demanded equal pay for equal work. The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has lodged a collective grievance to the BBC on behalf of 121 women.

 

"While individual BBC managers have been supportive, there is still a bunker mentality in some quarters and women have experienced veiled threats made against them when they raised the subject of equal pay," BBC Women said in written evidence to parliament's media committee.

 

The lawmakers are due to hear oral evidence on Wednesday from Carrie Gracie, the BBC's former China editor, who quit this month in protest over being paid less than her male peers.

 

Senior BBC managers, including Director-General Tony Hall, are due to appear before the committee just after Gracie.

 

Funded by a licence fee levied on TV viewers and reaching 95 percent of British adults every week, the BBC is a pillar of the nation's life, but as such it is closely scrutinised and held to exacting standards by the public and by rival media.

 

The BBC said in response to the evidence submitted by BBC Women and the NUJ that it was committed to equal pay and did not accept the assertion that it had not been complying with equality laws.

 

In the wake of Gracie's resignation and the public debate it sparked, six of the BBC's best-known male presenters and journalists agreed to take pay cuts. That was widely welcomed, but campaigners for equal pay said it did not solve the underlying issues.

 

BBC Women said gender pay discrimination affected every part of the organisation, not just high earners.

 

The group provided 14 individual examples of women in a range of roles as TV and radio presenters and reporters, all of whom described frustrating battles with managers after discovering they were paid less than their male counterparts.

 

"I have co-presented with a male colleague for many years ... I estimate he's paid around double what I earn for doing the same job," said one of the unnamed women in a typical submission. "I raised the equal pay issue many times over the years, but nothing was done."

 

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Larry King)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-01-30

[thaibeachlovers]

If women are indeed being paid less for doing an identical job as a male co worker, based only on gender, that is definitely wrong. Equal pay for equal work.

 

However, seems to me that SOME women are employed merely because they are women, eg having a female co presenter just for the sake of having a female presenter, when in the "old days" one presenter was all that was necessary. Not saying that that an only presenter couldn't be female, or that the more important of the two couldn't be the female. Personally, I dislike the whole "having two presenters to prove balance" thing. I don't see why the licence fee payers have to pay an additional person, of either gender, just to repeat whatever the writers put in front of them. In any case, the presenter shouldn't be regarded as being of any importance whatsoever, as the news is the important thing, not them. It's not entertainment.

 

Given it's a public service paid for by the licence fee, there have to be rules for pay, so when they are brought into the light, perhaps we will find out why there is a difference.

[canuckamuck]

They are not being paid more because they are men. They are being paid more because they look like men but have fully adopted misandrism along with other liberal self loathing fashions of the day.  You can't just find these guys down at the local pub. They have to be built from the ground up. Whereas the women just need good elocution. 

[RickBradford]

The BBC is the world's greatest broadcaster -- or at least it keeps saying it is.

 

It should be given the option to prove it, by having the mandatory licence fee replaced by a voluntary donation system. If the BBC is as good as it says it is, then British taxpayers will support it sufficiently.

 

On the other hand, if it's just a mouthpiece for every "progressive" elitist anti-British notion imaginable, it will rapidly go down the gurgler like its print arm, The Guardian.

 

It seems like an experiment well worth running.

[Sir Dude]

The BBC lost it's way long ago....change is long overdue on many fronts within it. It also needs to drop it's political agenda as that is in direct conflict with it's purpose/charter.

[BuaBS]

public service paid for by the licence fee

 

What ? They still have a licence fee for TV ?   That's so last century and before a thing called "internet".

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 1:36 PM, RickBradford said:

The BBC is the world's greatest broadcaster -- or at least it keeps saying it is.

 

It should be given the option to prove it, by having the mandatory licence fee replaced by a voluntary donation system. If the BBC is as good as it says it is, then British taxpayers will support it sufficiently.

 

On the other hand, if it's just a mouthpiece for every "progressive" elitist anti-British notion imaginable, it will rapidly go down the gurgler like its print arm, The Guardian.

 

It seems like an experiment well worth running.

Well, perhaps one should separate the things the BBC does well, like ad free dramas. I love those ad free series like Marple, Poirot etc. No channel with ads does as well.

However, the thing the BBC utterly fails at, is the overseas news service, which spends more time on opening logos and self promotion than it does on actual news. It also considers sport, and in particular English football to be news which is beyond moronic, in a day where most people have access to multiple channels dealing only with sport and in particular English football.

I'm sick of the BBC telling us how much "news" it collects from around the world, when it shows hardly any, and endlessly repeats the same stories.

NB Shows about how African women are starting small businesses is worth at most a short segment and not half an hour, when the world is full of catastrophe and chaos that the BBC does not show, preferring football and African women in huts starting businesses.

 

I support an ad free BBC, but they need to go back to basics and start reporting the news, and not PC propaganda, if they want to regain the respect they were once held in.

However, I fear the PC rot has infected the BBC management to the extent they are incapable of running a decent news service.

[thaibeachlovers]

22 hours ago, BuaBS said:

public service paid for by the licence fee

 

What ? They still have a licence fee for TV ?   That's so last century and before a thing called "internet".

 

WHAT! You actually believe that you can see real news on the internet, the home of fake news.

 

You may be surprised to learn this, but not everyone has access to the internet.

While the BBC isn't perfect, and it's international news service is a disgrace, it's still better than any tv service that depends on ads for finance.

For an even worse international news service, one need not look further than "Sky ( pretend ) news" channel.