BBC Equal Pay Problems: An update 2 months on

In the employment blog on 30 October, we reported on the Equal Pay claim being pursued by Samira Ahmed against the BBC.

As reported in the press, the Employment Tribunal has now released its Judgment and has found in favour of Ms Ahmed.

Firstly, the panel of 3 found that Ms Ahmed's work on "Newswatch" was "like work" for the purposes of the Equality Act. This means that the Tribunal did not have to go on to determine whether the work of presenting the programme "Newswatch" was "work of equal value" to the  work of presenting "points of view".

The Tribunal then had to go on to determine if the BBC had successfully demonstrated that the reason for the difference in pay was not due to the difference in sex between the two job-holders, but was due to a "material factor" which was not in itself, tainted by sex.

In its Judgment, the Tribunal considered the evidence presented to it about the programmes, the BBCs approach to pay and the two presenters themselves. In a long Judgment,  the Tribunal held that the BBC failed to "prove" the reason(s) for the difference in pay between the two presenters and so upheld Ms Ahmed's claim.

The BBC issued a statement after the Judgment was released but declined to state whether it would be appealing.

No information about compensation for Ms Ahmed has been released.