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| BBC blasted for spending £1 MILLION in THREE YEARS on equal pay and discrimination legal fights | BBC blasted for spending £1 MILLION in THREE YEARS on equal pay and discrimination legal fights |
| (7 months later) | |
| The BBC has come under fire after admitting that it spent more than £1 million in the last three and a half years fighting legal battles over equal pay and discrimination cases brought by its own employees. | The BBC has come under fire after admitting that it spent more than £1 million in the last three and a half years fighting legal battles over equal pay and discrimination cases brought by its own employees. |
| The publicly-funded media organisation has defended its decision to, so far, spend £1,121,652 on legal bills as part of its commitment to being a “truly inclusive employer” due to the complex nature of equal opportunity cases, arguing they required qualified professionals to manage them and address the concerns raised. | The publicly-funded media organisation has defended its decision to, so far, spend £1,121,652 on legal bills as part of its commitment to being a “truly inclusive employer” due to the complex nature of equal opportunity cases, arguing they required qualified professionals to manage them and address the concerns raised. |
| “While we aim to manage costs efficiently and proportionately, the complexities of these cases mean they need to be managed by qualified professionals, not least to ensure fairness,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement. | “While we aim to manage costs efficiently and proportionately, the complexities of these cases mean they need to be managed by qualified professionals, not least to ensure fairness,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement. |
| While the BBC has refused to say how much exactly it spent on the in-house lawyers dealing with these cases over the past three and a half years, in a letter to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee, it did estimate that its legal team spent 2,688 hours working on these tribunals, suggesting that the figure was around £417 an hour. | While the BBC has refused to say how much exactly it spent on the in-house lawyers dealing with these cases over the past three and a half years, in a letter to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee, it did estimate that its legal team spent 2,688 hours working on these tribunals, suggesting that the figure was around £417 an hour. |
| The chair of the DCMS Committee, Conservative MP Julian Knight, has written a letter to the broadcaster, denouncing the sizeable payments as “unbelievable,” arguing that money that could have been spent on programming, reducing the cost of the licence fee or providing over-75s with free access to its services. | The chair of the DCMS Committee, Conservative MP Julian Knight, has written a letter to the broadcaster, denouncing the sizeable payments as “unbelievable,” arguing that money that could have been spent on programming, reducing the cost of the licence fee or providing over-75s with free access to its services. |
| The figures that have been revealed, only following a direct request from the DCMS Committee, do not include current tribunal costs, so the overall total could rise further as future cases are settled or go to court. | The figures that have been revealed, only following a direct request from the DCMS Committee, do not include current tribunal costs, so the overall total could rise further as future cases are settled or go to court. |
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