Bills

BBC News management have decided to avoid an uncomfortable three-week examination of their HR practices, with a settlement agreed with News Channel presenters Martine Croxall, Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone and Kasia Madera. 

The tribunal was due to start on Monday, and it would be fun to catch sight of the witness list for the BBC side. 

So some fee costs of this three-year dispute have been 'saved', but the BBC's side's expenditure so far will be pretty impressive. The four made their formal claim in June 2023; there has been at least one preliminary hearing, and last year there was a full hearing about whether they were allowed to bring claims for 'equal pay', as well as their employment discrimination case, having all been involved in a number of prior equal pay settlements from 2014. At that stage, the four didn't have legal representation and wrote simply: 

"Between us, we've had seven equal pay settlements; we have not been paid equally with our male comparator since Feb 2020 .... We believe the gap in pensionable pay was around £36k a year in Feb 2023". 

The 'male comparator' as far as they were concerned, was Matthew Amroliwala. The equal pay issue was resolved against the four presenters - they couldn't argue that every pay day was an opportunity to re-open issues prior to March 2023. 

The papers feature a number of BBC management sherpas, since departed; the lawyers for the BBC were Baker McKenzie, and the barrister was Jessie Devereux.