BBC

Women at BBC criticise pay review over failure to identify gender bias

Campaign group says review of on-air staff lacked transparency and did not tackle equal pay

Graham Ruddick Media editor

Tue 30 Jan 2018 16.39 GMT

First published on Tue 30 Jan 2018 10.41 GMT

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share via Email

View more sharing options

Share on LinkedIn

Share on Pinterest

Share on Google+

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Messenger

Close

A controversial review of on-air pay at the BBC that claimed there was 「no evidence」 of gender bias in pay decisions has sparked a backlash from women at the corporation.

The accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which produced the report, found 「anomalies that need addressing」 with BBC pay, including paying too much to a small group of predominately male stars at the top of the organisation because 「too much weight has been placed on the prominence and profile of certain individuals」.

'Same old bollocks': BBC women hit out at equal pay review

Read more

However, rather than gender bias, the report blamed the problems on a lack of clarity and openness at the BBC as well as the financial constraints it has operated under for the past decade, which has held back the pay of younger stars compared with older generations.

The BBC Women campaign group, which represents more than 170 presenters and producers, dismissed the report and criticised it for not properly tackling equal pay. PwC focused primarily on news staff and the BBC’s best-paid stars in entertainment and sport, such as Graham Norton, Gary Lineker and Chris Evans, were excluded.

「There’s been no transparency on which individuals were included or why,」 said BBC Women, which represents more than 170 presenters and producers including Jane Garvey, Mishal Husain and Victoria Derbyshire, in a statement.

「The BBC has chosen who to compare with whom, and what factors justify any gaps in pay. The only mention of equal pay in the letter of engagement with PwC refers to an 『assessment of equal pay risks』.

「We hope today’s commitment from the director general to put equality at the heart of what the BBC stands for results in swift and meaningful change for women in all roles and at all levels at the organisation.」

Garvey, who has been at the forefront of the campaign group, also questioned the conclusion there was no gender bias in the BBC’s pay decisions.

「The report would say that, wouldn』t it?」 she told the BBC’s World at One. 「This is a PwC report commissioned by the BBC and, without being overly cynical, I might venture to suggest that PwC has delivered the report the BBC has asked for.」

The National Union of Journalists, which has lodged a collective grievance about pay on behalf of more than 120 BBC employees, accused the broadcaster of 「allowing a discriminatory pay culture to flourish」 through a 「serious lack of oversight」.

Jennifer Millins, an employment lawyer at Mishcon de Reya, said the BBC was unlikely to win equal pay claims at an employment tribunal with the defence that there was no gender bias in its decisions.

「That is not the answer to an equal pay claim,」 said Millins, who is advising more than 10 senior women at the BBC. 「The lack of data means an employment tribunal is going to scrutinise very closely what the BBC has done here, so that it [the lack of data] is not a cloak for discrimination.」

However, Millins said that the BBC will be 「one of the better employers around for dealing with this in the future」 if it pushed through the overhaul of its pay policies that it is proposing in response to the PwC report .

The BBC responded to the report by saying it had already resolved more than half of 230 individual cases raised so far relating to pay equality and would deal with the rest by the summer.

The broadcaster also revealed a five-point plan designed to fix issues raised by the PwC report, which revolves around being more transparent about what it pays staff.

The plan includes pay cuts for some high-profile men as well as pay rises for some male and female presenters, a new criteria for pay based on skills, experience and audience impact, publishing the pay range for 「virtually every job」 at the BBC so that staff know what their peers are being paid, a review of career progression and working practices for women, and accelerating plans to achieve a 50/50 representation of men and women at the BBC by 2020.

Six high-profile male presenters have already agreed to pay cuts, including John Humphrys, Jeremy Vine and Nick Robinson.

However, even the proposed pay rises are likely to be controversial. The PwC report shows the BBC has identified 188 individuals who could get a pay rise, but 98 of these are men and 90 are women.

Tony Hall, the director general of the BBC, said: 「Today’s report does not find evidence of gender bias in decision-making, but it shows that we have real and important issues to tackle, particularly in some areas of news and current affairs, and I』m determined to get it right.」

Hall and other senior BBC executive will answer questions from MPs on the influential digital, culture, media and sport committee on Wednesday. Carrie Gracie will also appear after she resigned as China editor of the BBC in protest at its 「secretive and illegal」 pay culture.

BBC Women have submitted evidence to the committee that claims female staff at the BBC faced 「veiled threats』 if they raised equal pay queries. Hall said these allegations were 「absolutely unacceptable」.

The PwC report analysed 824 on-air staff at the BBC on news, radio, the world service, local news and sport. It found there was a gender pay gap of 6.8% in this group, lower than the 9.3% for the rest of the BBC, but that there were more men than women in the upper half of the pay distribution.

The accountancy firm also identified significant fluctuations among the 168 top stars. There is a 9% pay gap between male and female presenters on the flagship 6pm and 10pm news bulletins, Radio 4’s Today, and the main radio news shows and a 20% gap in TV specialist news, news-related magazine shows on radio, and rolling radio news. A 23% pay gap in favour of women was found among senior correspondents.

PwC said it had found that where there were differences between men and women in the same role it was 「typically driven by material and justifiable factors unrelated to gender」, such as level of experience, skills and 「market influences」. However, in some cases, the objective and verifiable evidence for the pay discrepancy was 「more limited」

In its conclusion, PwC said that it had found no evidence that pay decisions it examined were based on gender, but added that too much weight had been placed on the profile of some individuals.

It went on: 「In some cases, this apparent unfairness has been interpreted by individuals as unlawful gender bias in the setting of pay. We have found no evidence of this, but the BBC’s lack of consistency and transparency has fed these perceptions and the BBC needs to work hard to rebuild trust and ensure transparency and consistency as it moves forward.」

The methodology of the PwC report will be scrutinised given the accountancy firm admits that the analysis is 「not, and nor is it intended to be, a comprehensive review of the pay of each and every individual employee」 and that the conclusions 「should not be read as concluding that there are no individual potential equal pay issues within the BBC」.

Topics

BBC

Equal pay

Gender

Women

news

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share via Email

Share on LinkedIn

Share on Pinterest

Share on Google+

Share on WhatsApp

Share on Messenger

Reuse this content

本文來源：https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/30/bbc-pay-review-claims-no-evidence-of-gender-bias