BBC pay: 200 staff seek publication of all salaries and benefits

Almost 250 BBC staff including stars such as Victoria Derbyshire, Mariella Frostrup, Naga Munchetty and Dan Snow have challenged the corporation to publish individual salaries and benefits of staff if it is serious about tackling pay inequality at the corporation.

The group, which comprise on- and off-screen staff from across the BBC, have co-signed an open letter calling on the BBC director general, Tony Hall, to deliver on his promise to make the corporation the “most transparent organisation when it comes to pay”.

The signatories argue that Hall’s new strategy to tackle pay inequality and discrimination will not solve the problem, and claim that management is dragging its feet.

Hall announced a five-point plan in January following the publication of a review by PwC of pay for on-air staff, which prompted a major backlash by concluding there was no evidence of gender bias in pay decision-making.

“It’s time for full pay transparency at the BBC,” the letter states. “Transparency about what everyone earns, about how pay is decided, and also about promotion and recruitment across all areas of the corporation. Our pay structure is likely to flatten as very high salaries become harder to justify. It’s the fastest, cheapest, fairest way to begin to tackle unequal pay at the BBC.”

The BBC has said it will improve by providing more information using “narrower pay bands” that it claims will mean “everyone will be able to see the pay range for virtually every job”.

The signatories argue that the only way to fix the problem, which they say has “eroded trust and morale” in the BBC, is to provide more granular information, including on benefits such as pensions, that can mask major differences in pay deals.

“The BBC spends public money,” the letter says. “The public deserves to know how that money is spent.”

Source: theguardian