As Auntie celebrates 100 years in Northern Ireland, The BelTel bursts the party with a story of how they spent over 600k on legal fees for just two workplace disputes. From Adrian Rutherford:
The BBC’s legal bill for settling two high-profile workplace disputes has now topped £600,000.
Donna Traynor and Lena Ferguson took separate cases against the broadcaster.
Both were settled in 2023, with undisclosed payments made to the claimants, without the BBC admitting liability.
However, the broadcaster was left with a legal bill running to hundreds of thousands of pounds.
New details of the expenditure can be revealed today, with the BBC’s costs for both cases now standing at £607,695.
Ms Traynor, a former Newsline presenter, left the BBC in 2021, alleging discrimination on the basis of age, sex and disability.
She took an industrial tribunal against her former employer and its Northern Ireland director, Adam Smyth.
It opened in May 2023, hearing one day of evidence, before it was settled.
The opening day heard claims that Ms Traynor felt she was being “bullied” and “coerced” by the BBC management into presenting the two hour Evening Extra radio show two to three days a week.
Her legal team said she was subjected to “bullying and harassment” after she raised a grievance about a plan to change her role.
Ms Ferguson, a freelance producer, sued the BBC over bullying claims.
The BBC said: “The Lena Ferguson case was brought in the High Court and these proceedings commenced in April 2020.
“The total amount of legal costs and disbursements incurred since April 2020 to the date of receipt of (our request) is £220,039.
“We confirm that separately we have paid £117,154 to Ms Ferguson’s lawyers in respect of her legal fees.”
The BBC said Ms Traynor issued three claims in the Industrial Tribunal and one in the High Court.
These claims were brought between April 2020 to June 2023.
“The total legal advice costs, counsel fees and disbursements incurred in respect of all four proceedings, from April 2020 to the date of (our request) is £270,502.”
Any legal readers care to comment on how employment disputes can have such staggering legal costs?
It is also an indictment of their management style that they could not resolve these issues without going to court.
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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