A BBC whistleblower who claimed she was bullied after questioning a £250,000 redundancy payoff for a senior manager just eight months from retirement, was given £30,000 after she dropped her claim yesterday.
Indira Histon, 34, a human resources and development manager, claimed she was asked to lie to BBC lawyers so the manager, who had taken voluntary redundancy, would receive the £257,000 pay-off.
She told the Watford Employment Tribunal she questioned the payout as it amounted to a misuse of licence fee-payers’ money’ since BBC guidelines stated that management interest terminations were subject to a cap of one year’s pay.
Ms Histon claimed she subsequently suffered ‘detrimental treatment and bullying’ after objecting to the two-year pay off for Sue Lynas, the corporation’s director of marketing communication and audiences.
Ms Histon said that in August last year she had been asked by senior staff members to come up with a ‘creative’ payoff for Ms Lynas, who was due to retire in June this year, that they could push through the finance approval process. ‘This was a very large pay-off and was likely to be scrutinised by BBC management,’ she added.
‘The team and I were shocked by the suggestion that we would pay this amount of money to an individual particularly as we believed the pay off was excessive for a management interest termination and amounted to a misuse of licence payers money.’
The BBC argued that its senior executives ‘considered that there was a business case for not imposing the limit of 12 months’ pay, which was usually applied by the BBC to compromise agreements in cases of consensual termination’.
A BBC spokesman said after the agreement: ‘We are pleased that this matter has been resolved. The allegations, which have been withdrawn by the claimant, were without merit and strongly denied by the BBC throughout.’
Ms Histon, of Crown Street, Acton, earned £50,000 a year working at the Television Centre in Wood Lane. She withdrew her tribunal claim after reaching a settlement.
The BBC said she would be leaving her position soon.
Tags: Whistleblowers, Women in Court, Women in Media, workplace bullying
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