The BBC’s HR chief has defended the organisation’s reward strategy after the salaries and job details of more than 100 managers were revealed last week.
Lucy Adams, the £320,000-a-year director of BBC People, told staff magazine Ariel: “I imagine that if I were earning the national average [about £27,000] and my partner had just lost their job in the recession, and I saw a list of big salaries at the BBC, it would not feel very palatable.
“However we can’t have a remuneration strategy driven by public opinion.”
Adams’ comments come after one senior executive at the broadcaster admitted his job title is “completely barmy”.
BBC vision controller of multi-platform and portfolio, Simon Nelson, is one of 107 top BBC decision-makers who racked up £20m between them in pay last year.
Nelson, who receives £177,000 for work including scheduling and subtitling, told media industry magazine Broadcast: “I see my job as transforming the whole of the BBC’s TV operation into something that thinks and operates across all media.”
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According to the Daily Mail, insiders say the BBC is looking to modify job titles to make it clearer to the public what people’s roles are.
The details of business-related expenses and pay packets have been published online, as part of moves to create a more transparent organisation. The corporation will reveal in January what it pays its top talent. The figure is expected to exceed £100m a year.
