Martine Croxall, Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone and Kasia Madera settle sex and age discrimination dispute
Four female news hosts have agreed to a dispute with the BBC over claims including gender and age discrimination.
Martine Croxall, Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone and Kasia Madera claimed that they lost their roles on the BBC News Channel during the “manipulation” recruitment campaign.
The BBC insists that its application process is “strict and fair”.
The BBC News learned that a settlement had been reached but did not acknowledge the liability, and the three-week court heard the host’s claims, which will begin on Monday, and will not continue now.
They said in a joint statement: “We can confirm that we have reached a resolution through the BBC management that avoids the need for court hearings for claims related to our employment.
“The protracted process that lasted nearly three years has passed. The support we have received has deeply moved us.
“We look forward to further contributions to the success of BBC News, especially to live programming and streaming services that are so important to our audience.”
A statement from the BBC said: “After careful consideration, we have reached a resolution that ended the legal action with four staff members and avoided further costs for the BBC.
“In doing so, we have not accepted any responsibility or any arguments to the BBC. We are simply closing all actions against us so that all participants can move forward.”
It added that it welcomes the opportunity to “look forward now and jointly provide delivery to our audience – which is our top priority”.
Due to the dispute, all of these women received full salary and started to return to work in the following March.
The terms of the settlement have not been issued yet.
The controversy originated in July 2022, when the BBC announced plans to merge its domestic and international news channels, providing the recruitment process for the five chief hosts.
The women claimed that before the announcement, senior BBC channel editor privately guaranteed four other speakers – two men and two young women – that their jobs were safe.
“We conducted a scheduled job application process in February 2023,” the moderator said in court documents. At last year’s preliminary hearing.
As a result, they said they were not recruited as lead presenters, but were awarded the role of journalists, which actually meant downgrades and salary cuts.
The host called the recruitment process a “fake exercise” and even if the redundancy is not real, our work was shut down because the work still exists”.
They argued that they were discriminated against due to their gender and age due to union membership and to file previous claims of equal pay and were harassed.
The company said candidates in all chief moderator roles are subject to the same fair application process, which involves applying for an interview and then conducting a practical assessment.
It said at least five applicants scored higher than four women and were therefore appointed based on an “objective assessment.”
The women’s case also initially included an equal pay claim, a request that the judge dismissed last May.
The woman later appealed the ruling and now, as part of the settlement, the equal pay claim is over.
