Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Not the same but right ?

It was February 5th when we reported that Karen Martin had been appointed as one of two deputy editors in the BBC Radio Newsroom at Broadcasting House. 106 days later, Karen, (Heathfield School and London College of Printing) has emailed colleagues around the organisation to say she's turned the job down

“Despite being awarded the same job, on the same day, after the same board, during the same recruitment process, BBC News asked me to accept a considerably lower salary than my male counterpart. A lot less.

“I’ve been assured our roles and responsibilities are the same. I’ve also been told my appointment was ‘very well deserved’. It’s just that I’m worth £12,000 less. Over the past four months I have asked BBC News to think again. And they’ve inched their offer up by addressing historical ‘under payments’. Now the gap is nearer to £7,000. But for me it has never been about the actual salary. It has been about equal pay.”

The other deputy job has gone to Roger Sawyer, 55, (Charterhouse and Oxford) a former editor of PM, The World Tonight and the Six O'Clock News. A subsequent staff email from BBC News Head of Output, Gavin 'Dogbone' Allen, 49 (Oundle and Christ's College Cambridge) said “Roger has worked at or above this level for several years whereas Karen was offered this role as a promotion, with a significant pay increase. We think most people would understand that these factors would result in some difference between their individual pay. I accept that we have not always got things right in the past on pay but I believe this is not one of those cases.”

Gavin's last reported salary was £160k, from back in September 2017; it does not yet take account of his promotion to Head of News Output. The Deputy Editor roles are graded Band F, which spans £60k to £110k.

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