Pickets at parliament as BBC workers strike against low pay

Journalists working at the BBC Parliament channel are striking today, Wednesday, to demand pay parity.

The members of the NUJ union are demand that broadcast assistants at BBC Parliament are paid the same rate as those on other BBC channels.

Broadcast assistants who write, edit and produce content for BBC Parliament are paid at the “grade five” rate. But the NUJ says comparable work on the BBC News and BBC World channels and is done for higher pay by “grade seven” broadcast journalists.

Striker Simon Vaughan told Socialist Worker, “They don’t recognise the work that we do.

“Colleagues on the news channel get paid for the same job we do at grade seven.”

Simon explained that broadcast assistants had been trying for years to make bosses pay them properly.

He said, “We’ve been talking to management for four years. It’s come to an impasse really.”

He added, “We’re hopeful that management will start treating us like grownups.”

A number of MPs from different political parties visited strikers on the picket line.

Workers were set to follow up the walkout with action short of strikes.