Mary retweetledi
BBC PAID HIM 6X MORE. THE TRIBUNAL SAID THAT WAS ILLEGAL. THE BBC SAID IT WAS COMPLICATED.
Samira Ahmed @SamiraAhmedUK presented Newswatch on @BBC for years. Same format. Same length. Same job. Read viewer feedback on camera, wrap it up, go home.
Jeremy Vine @theJeremyVine did exactly the same thing on Points of View.
She got £440 per episode. He got £3,000.
Ahmed spent years trying to fix it quietly through internal BBC processes. The BBC said there was no problem.
She filed for tribunal. In January 2020, the tribunal ruled unanimously in her favour. The BBC could not explain the difference. They tried. They argued Vine needed "a glint in the eye" and to be "cheeky."
The tribunal said that was not a skill. It was a story the BBC told itself.
The total underpayment was close to £700,000. Sarah Montague, another BBC woman, settled separately for around £400,000.
The National Union of Journalists flagged around 70 more cases waiting resolution internally. After Ahmed won, 700 BBC women received pay rises.
The BBC's statement after losing? They regretted it had gone to tribunal.
Not that they paid a woman six times less than a man for the same work for years. Just that it became public.
Sources: @guardian, @BBC, @IFJGlobal, Others
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