A controversial review of on-air pay at the BBC that claimed there was "no evidence" of gender bias in pay decisions has sparked a backlash from women at the corporation.
The accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which produced the report, found "anomalies that need addressing" with BBC pay, including paying too much to a small group of predominately male stars at the top of the organisation because "too much weight has been placed on the prominence and profile of certain individuals".
Jennifer Millins, an employment lawyer at Mishcon de Reya, said the BBC was unlikely to win equal pay claims at an employment tribunal with the defence that there was no gender bias in its decisions.
"That is not the answer to an equal pay claim," said Millins, who is advising more than 10 senior women at the BBC. "The lack of data means an employment tribunal is going to scrutinise very closely what the BBC has done here, so that it [the lack of data] is not a cloak for discrimination."
However, Millins said that the BBC will be "one of the better employers around for dealing with this in the future" if it pushed through the overhaul of its pay policies that it is proposing in response to the PwC report .
Read the full article in The Guardian here.
Related links
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
