Martine Croxall, Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone and Kasia Madera settle sex and age discrimination dispute – Latest News Update

Four female news presenters have agreed a settlement in a dispute with the BBC over claims including sex and age discrimination.

Martine Croxall, Annita McVeigh, Karin Giannone and Kasia Madera claimed they lost their roles on the BBC News Channel following a “rigged” recruitment exercise.

The BBC has insisted its application process was “rigorous and fair”.

BBC News understands a settlement has been reached with no admission of liability, and a three-week tribunal to hear the presenters’ claims, which had been due to start on Monday, will now not go ahead.

In a joint statement, they said: “We can confirm that we have reached a resolution with BBC management that avoids the need for a tribunal hearing in respect of our employment-related claims.

“A protracted process lasting almost three years is now over. We’ve been deeply moved by the support we’ve received.

“We look forward to contributing further to the success of BBC News, especially to live programming and the growing streaming services that are so important to our audiences.”

A BBC statement said: “After careful consideration we have a reached a resolution which brings to an end protracted legal proceedings with four members of staff and avoids further costs for the BBC.

“In doing so we have not accepted any liability or any of the arguments made against the BBC. We are simply bringing to a close all of the actions brought against us so that all involved can move forward.”

It added that it welcomed the opportunity to “now look to the future, and to work together on delivering for our audiences – which is our first priority”.

The women were all off work on full pay from March 2023 as a result of the dispute, and started to go back to work the following March.

The terms of the settlement haven’t been released.

The dispute stems from July 2022, when the BBC announced plans to merge its domestic and international news channels, resulting in a recruitment process for five chief presenters.

The women claimed that ahead of the announcement, the BBC’s channels senior editor privately assured four other presenters – two men and two younger women – their jobs were safe.

“We were put through a pre-determined job application process in February 2023,” the presenters said in court documents during a preliminary hearing last year.

As a result, they said they were not recruited as chief presenters and were instead offered roles as correspondents, which in effect meant a demotion and a pay cut.

The presenters called the recruitment process “a sham” exercise, “where our jobs were closed even though the redundancies were not genuine as the work still exists”.

They argued they were discriminated against because of their sex and age, were victimised because of union membership and for bringing previous equal pay claims, and suffered harassment.

The corporation said all candidates for the chief presenter roles were subject to the same fair application process, which involved an application interview then practical assessments.

It said at least five other applicants scored more highly than the four women and were therefore appointed, based on an “objective assessment”.

The women’s case originally also included an equal pay claim, which a judge dismissed last May.

The women later appealed against that ruling, and the equal pay claim has now also ended as part of the settlement.