- Tuesday, April 16, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
BBC presenter Samira Ahmed on Wednesday (30) gave evidence in her case relating to gender pay bias.
Ahmed is arguing before an employment tribunal that she should be paid as much as Jeremy Vine as their work was similar.
While Vine was paid £3,000 per episode for presenting Points of View programme between 2008 and 2018, Ahmed was paid £440 per episode for Newswatch.
She said: “I could not understand how pay for me, a woman, could be so much lower than Jeremy Vine, a man, for presenting very similar programmes and doing very similar work”.
She also believes her work requires more preparation time.
“It is likely that Jeremy Vine spends less time in make-up than I do” as “women are more likely to be criticised for their appearance on air,” she said.
Ahmed has also claimed that Vine was “gifted” his lunchtime show on Radio 2.
“I was struck by how Jeremy was gifted the Radio 2 lunchtime show as a successor to Jimmy Young in 2003,” she wrote in a statement at the tribunal. “This was a controversial appointment at the time and led to many complaints. Prior to that he had been a news journalist with no experience or profile as an entertainment star.
“The BBC stuck by him and he was eventually cemented in the role. Women are not gifted these opportunities.”
After the hearing was adjourned, a BBC denied claims that the show was “gifted.” A number of people tried out on the programme, including Vine, before a decision was made, said the spokesperson.
The case at the Central London Employment Tribunal is expected to last a week.
