The Times reports that the BBC has ignored pleas for public sector pay restraint with a multimillion-pound offer to boost the salaries of more than 13,000 workers.
On the day that the Chancellor George Osborne warned that the black hole in the nation’s finances was larger than previously thought, the BBC announced that staff earning less than £37,726 — 70 per cent of the total — would each receive a £475 pay rise.
Wage restraint is only for the private sector, the little people. Our betters in the BBC surely deserve these extra millions?
You people have no idea of the cost of living in London, a good line of coke in an islington wine bar costs a small fortune these days!
Martin,
You are right, I have no idea. Why don’t you move to Scotland 😉
Also worth reminding ourselves that the BBC is sending c400 people to ‘cover’ the Glastonbury Festival. That compares with the 437 they sent to Beijing to cover the Olympics.
Glastonbury and the Olympics – both just as difficult and expensive to cover, eh? They really do take the piss.
I hear you can get a nice drop of coke for a good price there though
Coca Cola or Pepsi ?
Noticed that John Humphrys is conveniently looking into the Euro troubles of Greece just as his summer holiday is due I`m sure. Now will someone remind me where he keeps his holiday home again?
I also noted that he interviewed some Eurocrat from Germany…might he have had to change planes in Frankfurt I wonder?…and do such interviews get recorded in the VIP lounges of the airports…and do we still have to pay? Course we do!
Can expect Humph to be telling us of the troubles in getting a good taverna and the agonies of the ouzo industry tomorrow I`m sure!
Don`t blame him..blame ourselves for bankrolling his freebies!
I Keep on telling people to inform a mr J.Hunt about the BBC and the overspending and bias but as minister for culture doesn’t seem to take
any notice.Maybe when his mail bag get bigger he might do something about the bbc.
BBC ‘thinking’:
‘We’re working hard supporting South Africa World Cup, Mandela, Zuma and ANC’ (300 plus Beeboids there);
‘We’re working hard supporting Glastonbury Festival’ (over 400 plus Beeboids to be there again);
‘What’s wrong with increasing pay for ourselves, at British licencepayers’ expense?: we did it when our Labour chums were in power, and we can still get away with now under this soft government.’
Would it have anything to do with this meeting between union members and Mark Thompson, I wonder?
It was just in February that the BBC was supposedly going to be making some cuts, closing a couple of radio stations, and reducing the website. I guess that was all for show?
Why should we give any pay rises to staff who mainly produce trash? We should cut their wages to zero. If they can make any money selling their rubbish to willing customers then good luck to them, but government and criminal law guaranteed wages to pay people to mass manufacture dross like Eastenders and Casualty are even more of a national disgrace in hard times than they are normally.
I think I must take issue with the idea that everything in the public sector is rosy. It is for some but not for the majority. Local Government is feeling a lot of pain and there is more to come, believe me.
The BBC is not like Local Government it is more like a nationalised industry. They too were greedy and thought they were different than everyone else. The unions claimed riduculous pay rises even when the industry was sinking fast, oblivious to reality. Lets hope the BBC go the same way.
Supplementary:
“Unions reject BBC pay offer and call for 7.3% rise”
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=506351
Or they’ll what… strike?
That’ll mean their ‘message’ doesn’t get out. Makes BA unions almost seem rational.
Mind you saw the SKY host this morning in full support. Apparently £37k is ‘low pay’ and a bonus of £500… ‘nothing’.
A mindset that seems to prevail amongst the media set who speak ‘for’ (but mostly down to) the public, especially within the M25.
“Royal Mail and BBC omitted from public-sector pay review”
And who’s leading this review?: none other than BBC’s chum:
WILL HUTTON.
[Extract]:
“The review, led by the centre-left writer and economist Will Hutton, will not be allowed to investigate reward at the two organisations because they each have independent revenue streams rather than relying solely on the public purse.
“But the move has angered some critics, who point out that some of the largest public-sector salaries are to be found within the two. Recent efforts by the BBC to be more open about salaries have served to highlight the rewards on offer, with director-general Mark Thompson receiving a £834,000 pay package, deputy director-general Mark Byford taking home total remuneration of £485,000 and head of people Lucy Adams earning a £320,000 salary. ”
http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2010/06/royal-mail-and-bbc-omitted-from-public-sector-pay-review.htm