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BBC staff moving to Salford set to keep London allowances
The BBC is again coming under fire from some quarters of the national press for its departmental move to MediaCityUK. This time the controversy is centred on the revelation that relocating staff will be able to keep their London-weighting payments.
According to the Daily Telegraph - traditionally not the staunchest supporter of the organisation - this could cost the taxpayer an extra £40m not budgeted into the initial estimates, with weighting payments of up to £4,080 available.
A BBC spokesperson confirmed that the 427 relocating staff would be eligible for the payments as "it would be unreasonable to expect staff to take a reduction in earnings as part of this process."
Shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunter was quoted in the paper as saying: "For the BBC to be using licence-fee payers' money in this way beggars belief.
"Money should be spent on producing great programmes, not bribing people who want to stay in London to move to Salford."
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Sorry Reith, I was a bit harsh there. It's because I'm an embittered wannabe who's been knocked back by the Beeb too often.
A London-centric Beeb friend of mine recently proclaimed that he wouldn't move to Salford if they offered to give him ANOTHER £4k in his salary.
I told him two things:
1. It's Salford, not war-torn Basra.
2. If he's giving up his job, then I'll have it. I'd fill it before his chair was cold.
Reith - in which case you can sod off!
'tearing up my career' - slightly melodramatic don't you think?
Ever noticed how many bbc staff actually move to other broadcasters? I bet it's less than 10% because:
a) they're on a real cushy number
b) they aren't good enough
c) both of the above
thankfully there will be hundreds of new opportunities for the talent already in the North.
Typically, the BBC have got themselves into a terrible mess here. Morally & logically staff working in the North should NOT qualify for a "London weighting". But with less than half opting to travel North already, how much lower would that figure drop if the perk was withdrawn? Now, of course, you will see an inequality, meaning that someone recruited from the North to do the same job could find himself/herself next to someone earning £4000 more for the same work. That's on top of the very, very generous relocation package, which I'm sure will be exploited to the full by the evacuees. And who's paying for all this profligacy? Well, you and I of course, the dear old, totally exploited licence fee payer. The BBC is being run worse that Derek Hatton's Liverpool City Council as a sinecure for the lucky few.
If some git was tearing up my career and saying 'move to Manchester or sod off',
then believe me, I would regard 4k as poor compensation.
quite right!
it's called 'London Weighting' for a reason?
Less than half want to move and those that do 'brave it' can expect clothing, housing, furniture and god knows how many other allowances for their troubles.
Next their staff will be whining we've moved north and the olympics are in london!
pathetic - try working in the commercial world bbc lifers.
God forbid I actually find myself agreeing with the Telegraph here.
I'm a huge supporter of Media City, and the BBC, but why should people moving from London have the right to 4k more than their colleagues that have been recruited here in the region?
This isn't fair at all.
If they don't want to move from London then recruit more people here. Simple.