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.”
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.
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