BBC Scotland News editor Sarah Smith claims two or three female presenters were offered a “fairly derisory” pay rise days before the salaries of top stars were made made public, amid fresh claims that women journalists querying salaries were made to feel as if they were being “troublesome”.
Ms Smith, was among more than 40 senior women journalists and presenters at the BBC who signed a recent letter to Director-General Tony Hall demanding immediate action on unequal pay. She said told a conference it was “astonishing” the BBC had been so unprepared for the sexism crisis the pay revelations provoked.
Her comments came as Radio 5 Live presenter Rachel Burden said women journalists at the BBC were made to feel as if they were being “troublesome” when they asked bosses whether they were being paid the same as their male colleagues.
Ms Burden, who earns £130,000 for her work for 5 Live, said she had never asked to be paid the same as Nicky Campbell, who presents the breakfast show alongside her, and who earns more than £400,000.
But she said it is right that women are uniting to ask for action on the gender pay gap: “There has to be room for recognising experience and market value, I get that. I’ve known how much he is paid for some time - we’ve talked it over frequently.”
Writing in the Guardian, she said the storm about pay had been “brewing behind the scenes at the BBC for a number of years: “In many cases, senior managers were directly asked whether women were on the same pay as comparable male colleagues. Few enquiries had a satisfactory outcome - the female journalists were either ignored, belittled or made to feel as if they were being troublesome,” she said.
“Equal jobs should mean equal pay - but where there is disparity, is the gap justified? Are the women paid too little, or the men paid too much?”
Sarah Smith, who like Ms Burden did not feature on the list of BBC employees paid in excess of £150,000, spoke out during a gender conference at the Aberdeen Asset Management Leadership Forum in Dundonald.
She said she and other signatories to the letter were not arguing for pay rises for themselves, but for any female colleagues who aren’t getting paid the same as men for doing the same job. “It is outrageous, it’s also illegal... even though we know it goes on all over the place,” she said.
She added that it was remarkable the corporation had not been better prepared. She said: “The BBC has known for over a year that it was going to have to publish these salaries and appeared to have done very little. I am told that they had a couple of meetings with two or three female presenters a week before the salaries were published, and offered them fairly derisory pay rises that would have knocked them up a band by about£5,000.
“They knew they were going to get this amount of publicity and yet they seem to have done absolutely nothing about it. It’s astonishing.”
Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservatives, who was also speaking on the panel said publishing the salaries would help ensure the situation was addressed. ““I do believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant”, she added.
Director general of the BBC Lord Hall said he would “value (the) contribution” of more than 40 senior woman presenters and reporters who signed the letter.
However a BBC spokeswoman disputed Sarah Smith’s claim about last minute pay offers, arguing that as the figures published were for the past financial year, any pay offers at that point would not have affected the salary list. She said it would be ‘ridiculous’ to suggest stars had been offered pay hikes to stop them speaking out.
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