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BBC to raise salaries for off-air staff at World Service and Monitoring BBC to raise salaries for off-air staff at World Service and Monitoring
(about 4 hours later)
The BBC is to increase the pay of staff at World Service and BBC Monitoring in line with the rest of the news department after an internal review revealed significant disparities. The BBC is to spend almost £4m on increasing the pay of staff at the World Service and Monitoring after an internal review revealed significant disparities between their salaries and those in the rest of the news department.
In a separate row to the gender pay dispute at the BBC, the corporation has faced growing frustration among staff at World Service and Monitoring about how much less they are paid than presenters, reporters and producers on the BBC’s network news. In a separate row to the gender pay dispute at the BBC, the corporation has faced growing frustration among staff at the World Service and Monitoring about how much less they are paid than presenters, reporters and producers on the BBC’s network news, which includes flagship programmes such as News at Ten.
Sources have told the Guardian that few if any news presenters on the World Service are being paid more than £50,000 a year and were shocked to find that presenters of the BBC’s network news, such as Huw Edwards, were earning almost £600,000. A freedom of information request earlier this year revealed that the average salary of a senior broadcast journalist at the World Service was more than 10% less than on network news – £38,037 compared with £44,023. Sources have told the Guardian that presenters on the World Service were shocked when the publication of the BBC’s pay list in July revealed that presenters of network news such as Huw Edwards were earning as much as almost £600,000 while many of them were paid less than £50,000 a year.
However, the increase is unlikely to quell all the anger among World Service and Monitoring staff. The BBC said it would only apply to off-air staff such as producers, with the remuneration of presenters and on-air journalists addressed as part of a wider review about how much the public service broadcaster pays on-air talent. The new pay rise will apply to around 700 staff at the World Service and BBC Monitoring, which tracks news from other providers around the world for BBC staff, the UK government and commercial subscribers. On average, staff will receive an increase of 8%. This will be funded through what the BBC described as “wider efficiencies” – effectively cost-cutting – in the news division.
This wider review was sparked by the fallout from the publication of the BBC’s list of top earners in the summer, which sparked a row about a gender pay gap at the corporation because it revealed that just a third of its best-paid stars are women and the top seven earners are all men. The increase has been announced after a review by the accountancy firm PwC found that on average there was an 8% difference in pay between World Service and Monitoring staff and network news employees in equivalent roles. The report split staff up into 12 different groups based on their roles and found there was disparities with network news in half of them.
James Harding, director of BBC news and current affairs, said the organisation was increasing pay for staff at World Service and Monitoring, which tracks news from other providers around the world for BBC staff, the UK government and commercial subscribers, after a review by the accountancy firm PwC found there were “some differences in pay for some groups of people”. PwC blamed the disparity on “historic and economic reasons”. World Service and Monitoring used to operate separately from the BBC and were funded by the government, but in 2014 they were integrated with the rest of the news department. The report also said network news staff operated in a “different market environment” with a “wider range of career opportunities available to them, both inside and outside the BBC”.
The PwC review, which is expected to be published in full later on Tuesday, concluded that this gap existed for “historic and economic reasons”. World Service and Monitoring used to operate separately from the BBC and were funded by the government. However, in 2014 they were integrated with the rest of the news department. One source said the pay rise was long overdue. However, it is unlikely to fully quell the anger. There are just under 4,000 employees at the World Service and Monitoring, and less than one in five will receive the pay rise. The BBC said the increase would apply only to off-air staff in the UK, such as producers, with the remuneration of presenters and on-air journalists to be addressed as part of a wider review of how much it pays on-air talent.
Harding said: “We are all keenly aware of our responsibility to the licence fee payer, seeking to provide the highest-quality services at the best possible value for money. So, we have considered carefully the argument that internal and external market forces should continue to be factors setting World Service and BBC Monitoring pay. The disparity for some roles is also larger than 8%. A freedom of information request this year revealed that the average salary of a senior broadcast journalist at the World Service was more than 10% less than on network news – £38,037 compared with £44,023.
Tony Hall, the director- general of the BBC, has described the World Service as the “jewel in the crown” of the corporation. It operates in more than 30 languages and has a weekly audience of 269 million. Some presenters, particularly those working on African services such as Salim Kikeke on BBC Swahili, are followed by millions of people on social media.
The World Service is undergoing its biggest expansion since the 1940s, including the launch this week of a Korean service aimed at people in North Korea, which is opposed by the North Korean government. The BBC revealed last month that it had been told “in no uncertain terms” by the North Korean embassy in London that they did not want the Korean service to be launched.
The BBC Korean radio service broadcasts at night and the BBC said it was getting through to listeners “for the most part” despite attempts by the North Korean government to jam foreign broadcasts. The US human rights group Freedom House ranks North Korea as the second worst country in the world for censorship after Turkmenistan.
James Harding, the director of BBC News and current affairs, said he wanted the World Service and network news to work more closely together on investigations, reporting and breaking news.
He said: “We are all keenly aware of our responsibility to the licence fee payer, seeking to provide the highest-quality services at the best possible value for money. So we have considered carefully the argument that internal and external market forces should continue to be factors setting World Service and BBC Monitoring pay.
“We want a BBC where people move around and between our newsrooms. We believe a wider range of voices at work across BBC News will ensure we reach more stories and keep connected to everyone. To help make this happen, we have decided to align median pay.”“We want a BBC where people move around and between our newsrooms. We believe a wider range of voices at work across BBC News will ensure we reach more stories and keep connected to everyone. To help make this happen, we have decided to align median pay.”
The World Service operates in more than 30 languages and has a weekly audience of 269 million. Tony Hall, the director general, has described it as the “jewel in the crown” of the BBC and it is undergoing its biggest expansion since the 1940s. This expansion includes the launch of a controversial Korean service aimed at people in North Korea, which is opposed by the North Korean government. The wider review regarding the pay of on-air staff was sparked by the fallout from the publication of the BBC’s list of top earners in the summer. The list revealed that just a third of the best-paid stars were women and the top seven earners were all men. The BBC is expected to make further announcements regarding the pay of presenters and the measures it will take to ensure equal pay for equal jobs in the coming months.