The BBC is facing a backlash after an email sent by £369,999-a-year Claudia Winkelman to workers facing redundancy asked them to film a dancing video.
The email, which was reportedly sent by the Strictly Come Dancing host, asked colleagues to take part in the ‘Dancing with our staff’ promotional video.
But it is understood to have ruffled feathers at the corporation after being sent to staff who are facing job uncertainty and redundancies.
Yesterday, BBC accounts revealed Winkleman has become one of the highest paid female presenters at the corporation, earning between £365,000-£369,999 in the past year.
The email, which was reportedly sent by the Strictly Come Dancing host (pictured here in 2018), asked colleagues to take part in the ‘Dancing with our staff’ promotional video
BBC invited staff to apply for voluntary redundancy in bid to make £125m in savings because of coronavirus
In June, the BBC invited staff to apply for voluntary redundancy as it attempts to make £125million in savings this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
It is feared that thousands of jobs may go as the corporation looks to make the saving after the pandemic blew a huge hole in its budget.
The BBC has 19,231 staff working in these broadcasting roles, its most recent annual report says, and they had a six-week consultation period for redundancies.
The BBC suspended plans to cut around 450 jobs in BBC News because of the demands of covering the coronavirus pandemic but the cuts will still take place at a later date.
The £125million is in addition to the efficiency savings the broadcaster has committed to – £800million by 2021/22.
Advertisement
The Guardian’s Jim Waterson said there was a ‘mixed reaction’ surrounding the email.
Several BBC staff responded to Mr Waterson, including Newsnight producer Sam McAlister who replied, ‘Mixed’ with a laughing emoji.
A BBC Scotland producer also responded with a laughing emoji.
The video, which was filmed using the music of Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’ song, appears to have been taken down from the BBC website.
Yesterday, the BBC came under fire after it published accounts showing that staff pay had soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year – while the Corporation pushes ahead with its plans to strip a million over-75s of their free TV licences.
Accounts published at noon showed that Zoe Ball is now the BBC’s highest earner after pocketing a £1million pay rise – knocking Gary Lineker off the top spot.
Last year, Claudia Winkleman and Zoe Ball were jointly the highest-paid female presenters, both on up to £374,999, putting them in eighth place.
In July, the BBC invited staff to apply for voluntary redundancy in an attempt to save £125 million in savings this year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The broadcaster has asked its public service staff – not those in its commercial subsidiaries – to make a voluntary redundancy expression of interest.
The BBC suspended plans to cut around 450 jobs in BBC News because of the demands of covering the coronavirus pandemic but the cuts will still take place at a later date.
MailOnline has contacted the BBC for comment.
Yesterday, the BBC came under fire after it published accounts showing that staff pay had soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year
How can BBC justify these obscene salaries?’: Fury as corporation pledges reform while staff pay soars 3.5% to £1.53bn – despite stripping 1.5m over 75s of their free TV licences- as bosses boast of closing gender pay gap
By Dan Sales for MailOnline
The BBC has come under fire after it published accounts showing that staff pay had soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year – while the Corporation pushes ahead with its plans to strip a million over-75s of their free TV licences.
Accounts published at noon showed that Zoe Ball is now the BBC’s highest earner after pocketing a £1million pay rise – knocking Gary Lineker off the top spot.
The Match of the Day star, 59, is understood to have signed a new five-year contract – and a nearly 25 per cent pay cut from £1.75million down to £1.35million.
Responding to the news, Lineker sarcastically tweeted: ‘Oh dear. Thoughts are with the haters at this difficult time.’
Radio 2 presenter Ball, 49, is now earning £1.36million despite losing nearly a million listeners after the corporation pledged to tackle the gender pay gap.
They have been trying to level up the pay of male and female stars to repair damage to the corporation’s reputation and reduce discord among staff.
Equality issues led to the BBC handing out a settlement to former China editor Carrie Gracie in 2018 and then earlier this year losing an equal pay tribunal case to Samira Ahmed.
Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball will now overtake Gary Lineker as the BBC’s highest paid stars
Critics have blasted its decision to reward its staff with a total 3.5 per cent salary increase even after it announced plans to slim down its operations following the pandemic.
In July, the BBC announced a huge shake-up of regional TV news and local radio in England which will lead to 450 job cuts.
Changes will see one instead of two presenters fronting 6.30pm regional TV news bulletins as the corporation looks to make £25million in savings.
Inside Out, the regional current affairs magazine show made in 11 different regions, will be axed and replaced with a new investigative journalism programme from six hubs.
A ‘simplified schedule’ introduced on local radio during the pandemic, with single instead of double presenters and a reduction in the number of shows, will become permanent.
Other detractors have pointed to the BBC’s shocking push to strip 1.5 million pensioners of their free TV licences as the BBC seeks to capture younger audiences in its war with Netflix.
BBC director-general Tim Davie defended Ball’s huge pay rise after she shed nearly a million listeners in the first year in her new role, saying it was a ‘punchy’ market.
‘Zoe is absolutely a broadcaster at the top of her game. She’s delivering over eight million listeners,’ he boasted. ‘I think we’re getting incredible value.’
Asked about the likes of Lineker still earning more than £1million, Mr Davie said he would expect ‘people to come to the BBC at a significant discount to what they’d get in the open market’. But he added: ‘We will invest in very limited situations in particular markets to ensure we have got the best talent.’
Furious Twitter accounts lashed out at the BBC, with one commenting: ‘There is no possible way that anyone can justify the extortionate salaries at the BBC.
‘This simply can’t go on. Using the license fee as a way of paying for some of the BBC dinosaurs should be a criminal offence’.
Responding to Lineker’s pay rise, one tweeted: ‘How the hell can they justify giving Lineker such an obscene salary?’ Another commented: ‘Mr Lineker, do you not feel any sense of guilty at receiving such an obscene amount of money?’
‘You smug bar steward,’ one account tweeted: ‘That’s the elderly you’re insulting whilst gloating. You get paid your inflated salary directly from a ridiculous tax.
‘If the BBC had to pay its own way, you’d be singing a different song’. Another commented: ‘How can the BBC justify these disgusting salaries?’
The BBC announced its highest earners list which shows staff wages rose to £1.6bIllion:
Radio stars Steve Wright, Vanessa Feltz and Lauren Laverne had pay increasesNewsreader Huw Edwards was only one in top ten to get a cut in money earnedTim Davie admitted diversity of the biggest earners had to be improvedPensioners’ campaign group Silver Voice said the huge pay and rises suggested ‘a warped sense of priorities by the BBC in a time of difficulty’Anti-licence fee campaigners the TaxPayers’ Alliance said the ‘BBC salary surges for loaded luvvies fly in the face of ratepayers facing economic ruin’
Lineker tweeted moments after the BBC announced his new deal and pay cut
Furious Twitter accounts have blasted the BBC’s decision to reward its staff with a total 3.5 per cent salary increase after it announced plans to slim down its operations after the pandemic
The BBC’s 268-page report published at noon is full of congratulatory self-praise, with Mr Davie claiming: ‘The past few months have served as a powerful reminder of just how much the BBC matters to all of us, and our families.
BBC Rich list 2020 top ten 
1. BBC Radio 2 breakfast show DJ Zoe Ball is on £1.36 million.
2. Match of the Day host Gary Lineker is on £1.35 million.
3. Graham Norton takes about £725,000 for his Radio 2 show and some TV work, but not his chat show.
4. Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright is on about £475,000.
5. Newsreader and election night presenter Huw Edwards is on more than £465,000.
6. Fiona Bruce takes home over £450,000 for her work on Question Time.
7. BBC Radio London’s Vanessa Feltz is on about £405,000.
8. Desert Island Discs host Lauren Laverne is on more than £395,000.
9. Broadcaster Stephen Nolan is on more than £390,000 for his radio work, including 5 Live.
10. Match Of The Day’s Alan Shearer is on the same figure of £390,000 a year.
Advertisement
‘The programmes and services we provide for audiences have never been more relevant, important or necessary. I am proud of how quickly and effectively the BBC rallied around the needs of the nation when the coronavirus crisis struck.
‘Our teams not only kept services up and running at a uniquely testing time, they also showed remarkable dedication, flexibility and resourcefulness in reshaping them around the most urgent requirements of our audiences’.
It dedicates a full 38 pages to its so-called Equality Index Report, which lists the numbers of people who tick quotas – including equal numbers of men and women, more equal numbers of straight and homosexual people, racial ethnicities and even religious denominations.
However, the BBC also shows that bullying and harassment claims in the workplace have gone up since last year, with 92 formal cases – 10 of which are sexual harassment cases – this year compared to 86 formal cases in 2019.
The report also reveals that the BBC is losing young viewers, audiences in the North and Midlands as well as the trust of the BAME community, with one fifth of under-16s not using any BBC content, while those aged 16-34 using YouTube as their main viewing outlet.
The time spent watching the BBC fell in the North (by 12 minutes a week) and the Midlands (13 minutes) last year.
‘Netflix is often seen to be market leader by younger audience members,’ the BBC’s annual report admitted.
It comes as Ball overtakes Lineker as the BBC’s biggest-earning star. The Match of the Day star has been the firm’s highest-paid firm since 2018 – when Chris Evans, the previous spot-holder, left.
Earlier this month Ball splashed out an estimated £1.5million on a country mansion built by a Russian aristocrat.
The six-bedroom property, which was created by Baron Vladimir de Wolff in the 1920s, has a swimming pool, tennis court and acres of gardens.
Pay packets made through BBC Studios, the broadcaster’s commercial arm and responsible for the likes of Strictly Come Dancing, Antiques Roadshow and Doctor Who, are not disclosed in the new accounts.
Graham Norton takes about £725,000 for his Radio 2 show and some TV work, but not his chat show. Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright is on about £475,000.
Newsreader and election night presenter Huw Edwards is on more than £465,000. Fiona Bruce takes home over £450,000 for her work on Question Time.
BBC Radio London’s Vanessa Feltz is on about £405,000. Desert Island Discs host Lauren Laverne makes the top 10 for the first time, with more than £395,000.
Broadcaster Stephen Nolan is on over £390,000 for his radio work, including 5 Live. Match Of The Day’s Alan Shearer is on the same figure.
Laverne took over from Kirsty Young on the Radio 4 programme, while Bruce followed in the footsteps of David Dimbleby.
The BBC previously opposed the publication of salaries as a ‘poacher’s charter’, but then-boss Lord Hall later said he welcomed the ‘transparency’.
The salaries are being published amid questions about how the BBC will be funded in future.
The licence fee model is guaranteed until December 31 2027, the end of the current charter.
Decriminalisation of licence fee evasion could also be on the cards – but the BBC has warned that switching to a civil system would cost the broadcaster more than £200 million a year.
The BBC began means-testing the free TV licence for over-75s in August, having previously delayed its introduction because of the pandemic.
It came as it emerged last night that the BBC had given pay rises to more than 700 female employees since the start of its equal pay scandal.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that at least 84 women were given pay increases through formal processes between July 2017 and March 2020. During the same period, 608 women received a pay revision or increase through an informal pay enquiry.
The pay revelations are set to reignite fury over the BBC’s decision to strip over-75s of their free TV licences. Responding to the publication of BBC star salaries, John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘BBC salary surges for loaded luvvies fly in the face of ratepayers facing economic ruin.
‘These bumper Beeb pay packets are picked from the pockets of pensioners and poor taxpayers, who are fed up of forking out for the licence fee under pain of imprisonment.
‘It’s high time we axed the TV tax, introduced a subscription service and stopped taxpayers’ money going to these media millionaires.’
The BBC has insisted it cannot afford the concession for all pensioners and says only around 900,000 who receive Pension Credit would continue to get it.
Meanwhile, Netflix bosses have thrown their weight behind the long-term future of the BBC and voiced support for continuing the licence fee.
They say the streaming service, which has been hoovering up viewers from traditional TV stations, benefits from a creative landscape crowded with thriving public service broadcasters.
Two senior executives were grilled by MPs and faced repeated probing over their forecast for the BBC and its taxpayer-funded model.
Anne Mensah, vice president of original series at Netflix and herself a former Corporation employee, suggested it should continue to operate with a licence fee.
Appearing via video-link to the Commons’ Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, she said: ‘I absolutely believe in the long-term sustainability of the BBC.
‘I love the BBC, I think that they make some of the best shows, if you look at what they have done this year from I May Destroy You to A Suitable Boy.
‘I back the idea of having a UK creative economy that is built on a number of different models from subscription through to licence and I would hate to see the BBC diminished in its impact in the UK.’
BBC boss admits ‘work to do’ on diversity
The lack of diversity in the top-10 list of highest-paid BBC stars means the BBC has more ‘work to do’ on the issue.
The list includes Gary Lineker, Zoe Ball, Graham Norton, Steve Wright and Huw Edwards.
Director-general Tim Davie said that 18% of all stars earning over £150,000 are from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, compared with 12% in 2016/17.
‘We made good progress, if you look across the industry we’re in a good place, but we’ve got work to do,’ he said.
Earlier this year the BBC announced it will set aside £100 million for ‘diverse and inclusive content’ as part of its response to the killing in the US of George Floyd.
The sum, from its existing commissioning budget, will be spent on TV output across all areas, including children’s, education and current affairs, for three years from 2021/22.
Last month, then director-general Lord Hall apologised for a news report which contained a racist term
More than 18,000 people complained to the BBC over the broadcast, where social affairs correspondent Fiona Lamdin repeated a racial slur.
Advertisement
Last night pensioners’ groups demanded the corporation slash star pay if they are to expect over-75s to pay for their licences.
Dennis Reed, of pensioners’ campaign group Silver Voices, said: ‘This increase shows a warped sense of priorities by the BBC in a time of difficulty.
‘I would like to see them giving equal priority to poorer pensioners who struggle to pay their licence fee.’
Tim Davie, the BBC’s new director-general, has vowed to slash the number of people employed by the corporation.
He also said he was glad Lineker has signed a new five-year contract with the BBC.
‘And he has done so at a saving of nearly a quarter over his last contract,’ he said.
‘We are hugely honoured to have a broadcaster of such brilliance at the BBC.
‘And this is a great example of giving audiences both the best talent and the best value.’
The BBC is clamping down on presenters’ use of social media.
Davie added: ‘Gary knows that he has responsibilities to the BBC in terms of his use of social media.’
BBC Chairman, David Clementi, said: ‘This Annual Report tells the story of a BBC that remains of huge value at home and abroad, but is not without considerable challenges.
‘Going into the coronavirus crisis the BBC already had 31% less to spend on UK public services, than if the licence fee had risen with inflation since 2010.
‘Now the severe impact of Covid-19 means that we have to save an extra £125m – on top of additional significant savings – in a tougher than ever marketplace.
‘In this context, the BBC must redouble its efforts to serve all audiences, while maximising commercial revenues and supporting the creative industries’ recovery across the UK.
BBC’S 2020 STARS’ PAY REVEALED Today
Nick Robinson – £299,999
Mishal Husain – £269,999
Martha Kearney – £259,999
Justin Webb – £254,999
World at One
Sarah Montague – £254,999
PM
Evan Davis – £279,999
BBC News at Six and Ten
Huw Edwards – £469,000
George Alagiah – £329,999
Sophie Raworth – £279,999
Question Time
Fiona Bruce – £454,999
Andrew Marr Show
Andrew Marr – £364,999
Andrew Neil Show
Andrew Neil – £174,999
Newsnight
Emily Maitlis – £374,999
Kirsty Wark – £219,999
Victoria Derbyshire
Victoria Derbyshire – £219,999
BBC News
Clive Myrie – £219,999
Reeta Chakrabarti – £184,999
Ben Brown – £169,999
Carrie Gracie – £159,999
On-Air editors and correspondents
Laura Kuenssberg – £294,999
Jon Sopel – £239,999
Jeremy Bowen – £224,999
Katya Adler – £214,999
John Pienaar – £169,999
Faisal Islam – £159,999
Non-politics or news
Gary Lineker – £1.75million
Zoe Ball – £1.35million
Graham Norton – £729,999
Claudia Winkleman – £369,999
Steve Wright – £479,999
Vanessa Feltz – £409,999
Clare Balding – £159,000
Mary Berry – £219,000
Advertisement Corporation admits staff numbers ‘not going in the right direction’
The corporation insisted it was under no illusions and acknowledged the need to improve in the way the workforce is structured.
The total number of staff increased last year, with the headcount growing from 19,231 to 19,572, while the number of senior managers also rising from 250 to 253 – around 1.4 per cent of the total workforce.
Add to that the fact 106 employees are paid more than the Prime Minister, against a backdrop of a falling audience reach, it is clear changes must be made, bosses said.
A spokesperson said ‘we need to do much more to modernise and reform further and faster’, adding that ‘we can never be satisfied’ despite a report on efficiency revealing some success.
Regarding staff numbers, BBC chiefs said ‘some measures are not going in the right direction’ with the new Director General insisting a focus will be kept on cost reduction so that the public service headcount is smaller.
Meanwhile, the report also found 92 formal cases of bullying and harassment last year, up from 86 over the previous 12 months.
However, the average time to close a case reduced significantly to 77 days from 108 in 2018/19.
Advertisement
Link nguồn : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8739671/Claudia-Winkleman-sends-email-asking-BBC-staff-facing-redundancy-film-dance-video.html
