The Socialist 26 July 2017

Barts health strike: Low pay, no way!

Right wing attempts to use single market against Corbyn

Barts health strike: Low pay, no way!

Birmingham bin workers stand firm

Bron Afon workers strike against £3,000 pay cut

Court victory for PCS and all trade unions

Tesco's 10% pay increase accompanied by cuts and job losses

Mears workers escalate action to all-out strike

Workers' campaign underway to stop ward closure

Workplace news in brief

Building workers' struggle and the forces of international socialism

Abolish tuition fees and student debt!

Education cuts: Tories buckling under public pressure

BBC yawning pay gaps revealed

Homelessness and evictions soar under the Tories

Them & Us

Russia 1917: how art helped make the revolution

Young people...fight for a future, fight for socialist policies

Grenfell survivors tell Tories: "Step down and resign"

Vigil for Grenfell

Tenants' meeting reveals huge anger

Corbyn visits Southampton on marginal seat tour

Huddersfield A&E closure referred to Jeremy Hunt

From Militant to the Socialist Party - what you thought

Socialist sales at Salford station

Street cleaners support the Birmingham bin strike

'Freedom riders' lobby against violent policing

Council meeting abandoned after undercover policing protest

Education cuts forced back in Hackney

Southampton councillors faced with angry anti-cuts campaigners

Plans to bring A-levels back to Knowsley abandoned

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BBC yawning pay gaps revealed

BBC Broadcasting House in central London, photo Deskana (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)

Tom Baldwin, Bristol Socialist Party

The BBC has been made to reveal all its staff earning over £150,000 a year. The announcement made front page news in most papers, revealing some eye-watering pay.

Chris Evans topped the list on over £2.2 million. It also exposed a shocking gender pay gap with the highest paid woman, Claudia Winkleman, on 'just' £450,000.

While most people only dream of earning this much, the BBC rates still appear to be relatively modest for the entertainment industry. ITV's Ant and Dec apparently earned more than all the 96 named BBC staff put together.

The requirement to reveal top pay was added to the BBC's rules by the Tories as a stick to beat them with and the story was jumped on by all the privately-owned media. They want rid of the BBC to make space in the market for them to profit from.

Nonetheless, the list does show some shocking inequalities. The top seven earners are all men.

There were examples of women being paid less than their male co-stars on the same programme. 40 female stars have written to BBC director general Tony Hall to demand that the gender pay gap be addressed.

Elite

45% of the list were privately educated, compared to just 7% of the population. Only ten of the 96 aren't white.

At the other end of the scale, broadcasting union Bectu has revealed 400 BBC staff earn under £20,000, less than 1% of Chris Evans's pay. Strong national pay bargaining by unions is needed to eliminate the pay gaps and ensure all workers get a fair rate for the job.

Socialists defend the idea of a publicly owned media. But we call for democratic workers' control to ensure fair pay for all.

In this issue

What we think

Right wing attempts to use single market against Corbyn