Donna Traynor: BBC harassed and bullied TV presenter, tribunal hears
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Donna Traynor, pictured leaving the tribunal on Wednesday, says she faced discrimination on the basis of age, sex and disability
Donna Traynor was treated in a manner that amounted to bullying and harassment by the BBC, an employment tribunal has heard.
Counsel for the former BBC Newsline presenter made the claim in his opening statement to the tribunal.
Ms Traynor alleges that she faced discrimination on the basis of age, sex and disability.
The BBC and its Northern Ireland director Adam Smyth are the respondents in the tribunal case.
Ms Traynor joined the BBC in 1989, presenting radio news bulletins before moving into television.
She worked for the corporation in Northern Ireland for more than 30 years and was one of its most high-profile presenters.
She announced she was leaving the BBC in November 2021 with immediate effect in a post on social media.
At the time of Ms Traynor's departure Mr Smyth was the head of news in BBC Northern Ireland.
He was appointed director of BBC Northern Ireland in April 2023 after almost a year and a half as interim director.
In his opening statement to the tribunal Ms Traynor's counsel Patrick Lyttle KC said that she was a successful presenter who had always received positive appraisals for her work on BBC Newsline.
For instance she had been praised for her "warmth and assurance" and "authority" in a number of formal appraisals.
Adam Smyth, pictured arriving at the tribunal on Wednesday, was appointed BBC Northern Ireland director last month
In August 2006 Ms Traynor was offered a two-year contract presenting the 18:30 BBC Newsline programme five days a week.
In 2008 she was given a permanent contract, the three-person tribunal was told.
Mr Lyttle said that his client had been "engaged specifically to work on Newsline five days a week".
'Motivated by age'
But he claimed that a plan by Mr Smyth to move Ms Traynor to present the Evening Extra programme on BBC Radio Ulster alongside a male presenter was "suffused with sex discrimination".
Mr Smyth proposed in late 2019 that Ms Traynor and Tara Mills should share presentation duties on BBC Newsline and on Evening Extra.
The tribunal heard a male presenter was to be recruited to present Evening Extra on a full-time basis alongside the two women, who would alternate as presenters.
Mr Lyttle said that Ms Traynor did not accept that plan and felt her five-days-a-week role on BBC Newsline was being "diminished".
He also said Ms Traynor was "concerned this was being motivated by age".
The tribunal was read notes of internal BBC meetings held about the change.
In them Mr Smyth denied the proposed changes were anything to do with Ms Traynor's age.
But Ms Traynor said she felt "interrogated" during some meetings.
'Hanging her out to dry'
Ms Traynor subsequently raised a grievance with the BBC.
"I am 30 years with the BBC, I am shocked it has come to this," she said at one meeting, according to notes read to the tribunal.
"The sense of team has gone out of the window, I feel ostracised."
Donna Traynor worked at the BBC for more than 30 years
Mr Lyttle later claimed that the BBC had repeatedly questioned and ignored expert medical advice that Ms Traynor's deafness in her left ear meant she was not suitable for radio presenting.
"They were hanging her out to dry," he told the hearing.
"They backed her right into a corner and they threatened her, they harassed her and they bullied her.
"They didn't care, they wanted her into radio no matter what.
"If she didn't want to go she's out."
Mr Lyttle claimed that the BBC regarded Ms Traynor as a "risk editorially" due to her disability and removed her from TV presenting for two months in 2021.
"They were now ratcheting this up yet again," said Mr Lyttle.
The hearing continues.
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- Published15 November 2021
