Sarah Montague: Radio presenter confirms £400k pay settlement with BBC

20 January 2020

Radio presenter Sarah Montague has confirmed she won a £400,000 settlement and an apology from the BBC after being treated "unequally" by the corporation for years.

The World At One presenter said she would "prefer not to be talking about my pay" but felt she had to respond to "erroneous" reports in the press.

She said the settlement followed "a long period of stressful negotiations".

Montague said she accepted the payout, which is subject to tax, last year.

A BBC statement said: "We are pleased to have resolved this matter with Sarah some time ago."

In a series of tweets, external, the former Radio 4 Today programme presenter said: "When I discovered the disparity in my pay and conditions, I was advised that rectifying it all could run into the millions.

"I chose not to seek such sums from the BBC but I did want some recognition that they had underpaid me.

"Last year after a long period of stressful negotiations, I accepted a settlement of £400,000 subject to tax and an apology from the BBC for paying me unequally for so many years."

Her comments followed newspapers reports that she had received £1m, which the BBC said was incorrect.

In 2018, Montague said she was "incandescent with rage" after finding out her £133,000-a-year salary for working on the programme was less than her co-presenters were earning.

At the time, a BBC spokeswoman said it was committed to closing its gender pay gap by 2020.

Earlier this month, BBC presenter Samira Ahmed won an employment tribunal which she brought against the BBC in a dispute over equal pay.

Ahmed claimed she was underpaid by £700,000 for hosting audience feedback show Newswatch compared with Jeremy Vine's salary for Points of View.

The unanimous judgement said, external her work was like that done by Vine, and the BBC had failed to prove the pay gap wasn't because of sex discrimination.

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