The BBC Newswatch presenter claims she was paid 85% less than her male counterpart
The BBC has found itself in hot water after facing dozens of legal cases from female members of staff who believe they were paid significantly less than their male colleagues.
Currently leading the charge is Samira Ahmed, who embarked on a high-profile employment tribunal against the BBC earlier this week after claiming she has been underpaid by as much as half a million pounds over the span of five years.
Ahmed has presented BBC Newswatch since 2012, a 15-minute digest on the BBC news channel for which she received £440 per episode. She claims her male counterpart, Jeremy Vine, earned as much as £3,000 an episode for similarly hosting Points of View.
The female presenter argues that this is unfair on account of the fact that Points of View is a program of similar length to BBC Newswatch, with both programmes featuring viewer feedback.
The BBC’s legal team have countered Ahmed’s claim by arguing that the two presenters were not fulfilling similar roles.
Ahmed was greeted by supporters as she arrived at the tribunal on Monday, with a crowd including BBC Breakfast show host Naga Munchetty and poet Lemn Sissay cheering as she entered the building.
Carrie Grace, the BBC’s former China editor, spoke to reporters at the tribunal to warn that Ahmed’s case was just the first of many ‘in the pipeline’ for the BBC:
‘Women want equality, they want their work respected. They don’t want their work to be undervalued. It affects everything about their lives, it’s not just about finances…it’s also about self-respect and progression as well as pay.’
Grace, who resigned last year after battling with the BBC over equal pay, credited Ahmed’s bravery in willingly risking her career in order to see ‘equality honoured’, after being left disillusioned by the BBC’s archaic internal pay review processes: ‘Her case is emblematic and extremely important to all the other women still fighting.’
Ahmed is fighting the case with the support of the National Union of Journalists, that has referred to the BBC’s gender pay gap as ‘monumental’.
Ahmed’s tribunal comes off the back of the #MeTooPay campaign, that was launched by more than 100 high-profile women earlier this month, including former TalkTalk chief executive Baroness Dido Harding, to end pay discrimination.
Before entering the hearing on Monday, Ahmed issued a strong statement to emphasise the unfaltering respect she has for the BBC’s mission to tackle diversity:
‘I have a sense of pride working for a public service broadcaster which seeks to represent the diversity of Britain. On the back of my BBC ID card are written the BBC values, which include ‘we respect each other and celebrate our diversity’
She added, ‘I just ask why the BBC thinks I am worth only a sixth of the value of the work of a man for doing a very similar job.’
The post Female BBC employees fight back against pay gap as Samira Ahmed tribunal begins appeared first on Marie Claire.
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