One of the BBC's most senior journalists has accused the corporation of presiding over a "secretive and illegal pay culture", and said the organisation's management was "breaking equality law" in how it paid female staff.
In a bombshell letter addressed to BBC viewers and obtained by
BuzzFeed News, Carrie Gracie made a series of sensational allegations, announcing that the "crisis" over a gender pay gap has led her to her resignation as BBC China editor.
"With great regret, I have left my post as China editor to speak out publicly on a crisis of trust at the BBC," Gracie, who has been at the BBC for 30 years, wrote.
"The BBC belongs to you, the licence fee payer. I believe you have a right to know that it is breaking equality law and resisting pressure for a fair and transparent pay structure."
The letter was shared with dozens of people ahead of its planned release on Sunday evening.
Last year some of the most high-profile female BBC journalists and presenters called on the corporation to act after its
annual report exposed a
huge gender pay gap, revealing that two-thirds of its stars earning more than £150,000 are male.
Gracie slammed the BBC for the way it was reviewing the pay of female staff, and called for immediate change.
She wrote that "for far too long, a secretive and illegal BBC pay culture has inflicted dishonourable choices on those who enforce it. This must change."
The letter details Gracie's own experience of complaining about being paid 33% less than male international editors, and being offered what she calls an "unequal pay rise". She said this led to her decision to quit as China editor, a role she has held since 2013
The presenter is passionate about closing the gender pay gap. On November 10 last year, known as 'equal pay day' the presenter tweeted about the pay disparity 31 times
"Despite the BBC’s public insistence that my appointment demonstrated its commitment to gender equality, and despite my own insistence that equality was a condition of taking up the post, my managers had yet again judged that women's work was worth much less than men's," Gracie said in her letter.
She claimed "up to 200 women" have made complaints in the last six months since the BBC disclosed the pay details of its top earners.
"It is not men earning more because they do more of the jobs which pay better. It is men earning more in the same jobs or jobs of equal value," she said in her letter.
"It is pay discrimination and it is illegal."
Gracie predicts that the pay gap will lead to women leaving the BBC.
"Many have since sought pay equality through internal negotiation but managers still deny there is a problem," she wrote. "This bunker mentality is likely to end in a disastrous legal defeat for the BBC and an exodus of female talent at every level."
The letter addressed to BBC licence fee-payers was intended to be published on Sunday night, ahead of Gracie's scheduled appearance as a guest co-host on the Today programme on Monday. While she is quitting the role of China editor, Gracie said she would return to her former role in the BBC News Channel newsroom, "where I expect to be paid equally."
BBC Sport presenter Clare Balding said the letter was for 'everyone who loves and values the BBC from one of its finest journalists'
In response to Gracie's damning allegations, a BBC spokesperson released a statement.
“Fairness in pay is vital," it read. "A significant number of organisations have now published their gender pay figures showing that we are performing considerably better than many and are well below the national average.
"Alongside that, we have already conducted a independent judge led audit of pay for rank and file staff which showed 'no systemic discrimination against women'.
"A separate report for on air staff will be published in the not too distant future."
Gracie's full letter can be read below:
Dear BBC Audience,
My name is Carrie Gracie and I have been a BBC journalist for three decades. With great regret, I have left my post as China Editor to speak out publicly on a crisis of trust at the BBC.
The BBC belongs to you, the licence fee payer. I believe you have a right to know that it is breaking equality law and resisting pressure for a fair and transparent pay structure.
In thirty years at the BBC, I have never sought to make myself the story and never publicly criticised the organisation I love. I am not asking for more money. I believe I am very well paid already – especially as someone working for a publicly funded organisation. I simply want the BBC to abide by the law and value men and women equally.
On pay, the BBC is not living up to its stated values of trust, honesty and accountability. Salary disclosures the BBC was forced to make six months ago revealed not only unacceptably high pay for top presenters and managers but also an indefensible pay gap between men and women doing equal work. These revelations damaged the trust of BBC staff. For the first time, women saw hard evidence of what they’d long suspected, that they are not being valued equally.
Many have since sought pay equality through internal negotiation but managers still deny there is a problem. This bunker mentality is likely to end in a disastrous legal defeat for the BBC and an exodus of female talent at every level.
Mine is just one story of inequality among many, but I hope it will help you understand why I feel obliged to speak out.
I am a China specialist, fluent in Mandarin and with nearly three decades of reporting the story. Four years ago, the BBC urged me to take the newly created post of China Editor.
I knew the job would demand sacrifices and resilience. I would have to work 5000 miles from my teenage children, and in a heavily censored one-party state I would face surveillance, police harassment and official intimidation.
I accepted the challenges while stressing to my bosses that I must be paid equally with my male peers. Like many other BBC women, I had long suspected that I was routinely paid less, and at this point in my career, I was determined not to let it happen again. Believing that I had secured pay parity with men in equivalent roles, I set off for Beijing.
In the past four years, the BBC has had four international editors - two men and two women. The Equality Act 2010 states that men and women doing equal work must receive equal pay. But last July I learned that in the previous financial year, the two men earned at least 50% more than the two women.
Despite the BBC’s public insistence that my appointment demonstrated its commitment to gender equality, and despite my own insistence that equality was a condition of taking up the post, my managers had yet again judged that women's work was worth much less than men's.
My bewilderment turned to dismay when I heard the BBC complain of being forced to make these pay disclosures. Without them, I and many other BBC women would never have learned the truth.
I told my bosses the only acceptable resolution would be for all the international editors to be paid the same amount. The right amount would be for them to decide, and I made clear I wasn't seeking a pay rise, just equal pay. Instead the BBC offered me a big pay rise which remained far short of equality. It said there were differences between roles which justified the pay gap, but it has refused to explain these differences. Since turning down an unequal pay rise, I have been subjected to a dismayingly incompetent and undermining grievance process which still has no outcome.
Enough is enough. The rise of China is one of the biggest stories of our time and one of the hardest to tell. I cannot do it justice while battling my bosses and a byzantine complaints process. Last week I left my role as China Editor and will now return to my former post in the TV newsroom where I expect to be paid equally.
For BBC women this is not just a matter of one year’s salary or two. Taking into account disadvantageous contracts and pension entitlements, it is a gulf that will last a lifetime. Many of the women affected are not highly paid ‘stars’ but hard-working producers on modest salaries. Often women from ethnic minorities suffer wider pay gaps than the rest.
This is not the gender pay gap that the BBC admits to. It is not men earning more because they do more of the jobs which pay better. It is men earning more in the same jobs or jobs of equal value. It is pay discrimination and it is illegal.
On learning the shocking scale of inequality last July, BBC women began to come together to tackle the culture of secrecy that helps perpetuate it. We shared our pay details and asked male colleagues to do the same.
Meanwhile the BBC conducted various reviews. The outgoing Director of News said last month, “We did a full equal pay audit which showed there is equal pay across the BBC.” But this was not a full audit. It excluded the women with the biggest pay gaps. The BBC has now begun a ‘talent review’ but the women affected have no confidence in it. Up to two hundred BBC women have made pay complaints only to be told repeatedly there is no pay discrimination at the BBC. Can we all be wrong? I no longer trust our management to give an honest answer.
In fact, the only BBC women who can be sure they do not suffer pay discrimination are senior managers whose salaries are published. For example, we have a new, female, Director of News who did not have to fight to earn the same as her male predecessor because his £340 000 salary was published and so was hers. Elsewhere, pay secrecy makes BBC women as vulnerable as they are in many other workplaces.
How to put things right?
The BBC must admit the problem, apologise and set in place an equal, fair and transparent pay structure. To avoid wasting your licence fee on an unwinnable court fight against female staff, the BBC should immediately agree to independent arbitration to settle individual cases.
Patience and good will are running out. In the six months since July’s revelations, the BBC has attempted a botched solution based on divide and rule. It has offered some women pay ‘revisions’ which do not guarantee equality, while locking down other women in a protracted complaints process.
We have felt trapped. Speaking out carries the risk of disciplinary measures or even dismissal; litigation can destroy careers and be financially ruinous. What's more the BBC often settles cases out of court and demands non-disclosure agreements, a habit unworthy of an organisation committed to truth, and one which does nothing to resolve the systemic problem.
None of this is an indictment of individual managers. I am grateful for their personal support and for their editorial integrity in the face of censorship pressure in China. But for far too long, a secretive and illegal BBC pay culture has inflicted dishonourable choices on those who enforce it. This must change.
Meanwhile we are by no means the only workplace with hidden pay discrimination and the pressure for transparency is only growing. I hope rival news organisations will not use this letter as a stick with which to beat the BBC, but instead reflect on their own equality issues.
It is painful to leave my China post abruptly and to say goodbye to the team in the BBC’s Beijing bureau. But most of them are brilliant young women. I don’t want their generation to have to fight this battle in the future because my generation failed to win it now.
To women of any age in any workplace who are confronting pay discrimination, I wish you the solidarity of a strong sisterhood and the support of male colleagues.
It is a century since women first won the right to vote in Britain. Let us honour that brave generation by making this the year we win equal pay.
Newnight anchor Emily Maitlis shared the blog saying this was 'Carrie Gracie's story in her own words'
BBC sport presenter Gabby Logan said 'there is nothing more clear cut than Carrie's request'
Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark was 'outstanding and principled' and that she was 'proud to stand with her'
The Scottish journalist (pictured here in 2009) was immediately supported by scores of prominent BBC figures following her letter
BBC news anchor Naga Munchetty said Miss Gracie was 'a woman I already greatly admire - now even more so'
Sarah Montague, presenter of Radio 4 Today's show said 'Gracie is brave and brilliant'
BBC 5live presenter Emma Barnett said '2018 marks 100 years since the first women in this country won the vote, and yet women are still fighting for equal pay for equal work'
BBC journalist Jane Hill said Miss Gracie was 'superb' and her letter was for 'women of any age in any workplace'
Carrie Gracie has stepped down from her editor role and has been described as being 'brilliant' and 'relentless' by a colleague
Miss Gracie (pictured here in 2009) has said that she and her female colleagues have felt 'trapped' since the pay disclosures last year
BBC 5live presenter said she heartened to see support for Miss Gracie, who she described as 'brilliant'
BBC News North America Correspondent, James Cook said Miss Gracie stepping down as 'a huge loss to the BBC' and described her as 'highly principled and extremely talented
Maria Byrne, a senior BBC producer called Miss Gracie 'the best of the BBC' and that she was 'talented, hardworking and always asking tough questions'
Rachel Kennedy, an editor at BBC News said it was a 'huge loss' and she was 'always proud to work with Miss Gracie
Josephine McDermott, who works on the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show also called losing the China editor a 'tragedy' and that Miss Gracie was 'more of an inspiration than anything'
Jane Garvey wrote: 'Brave, brilliant @BBCCarrie please read her letter as she resigns as China editor over #equalpay' and later added 'I'm not brave enough to resign, I'm not pretending otherwise'
Channel 4 news presenter Cathy Newman said it was a 'tragedy' for the BBC to lose such as talented journalist.
Miss Gracie's BBC colleague Emily Maitlis retweeted Channel 4 News International Editor who said the BBC did not respect their China editor
Jackie Long, Channel 4's social affairs editor called the letter 'astonishingly brave'
Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith called the letter 'devastating' and said that Miss Gracie had done a 'brilliant job' as China editor
Sophie Walker, leader of the Women's Equality Party accused the BBC of 'cynically engineering its pay review to list top male earners separately and fake a 9 per cent pay gap
Forty-four female BBC staff signed the letter to Tony Hall including Clare Balding, Sue Barker and Fiona Bruce
ok
Miss Gracie tweeted 31 times on equal pay day this year to show her support for fair pay at the BBC and beyond
Miss Gracie thanked the men who stand 'shoulder to shoulder' with women on equal pay day
Miss Gracie said 'we're not going away' over the equal pay argument at the BBC
Reviewed by Your Destination
on
January 07, 2018
Rating:
No comments