Ex-TalkTalk UK Director Crowdfunds to Sue ISP for Unequal Pay UPDATE

Low cost broadband ISP TalkTalk is facing the prospect of a “landmark” legal case by one of its former Programme Directors, Rebecca Burke, who is crowd-funding to bring an equal pay claim against them after she was allegedly paid “40% less salary and 50% less bonus” than three other male colleges that were “in my team doing the same job.”

Rebecca, who was part of the team that helped the ISP to recover from a devastating cyber-attack in 2015, has already personally funded a tribunal in December 2018, but the case was reportedly postponed after a rare intervention by her barrister, Naomi Cunningham, who “asked the tribunal panel to stand down on the grounds that it was hostile to Rebecca’s case.”

In an address to the tribunal, Ms Cunningham said: “No claimant in an equal pay case listening to the exchanges could be expected to feel any confidence that any part of her claim would get a fair hearing.” The tribunal, chaired by Judge Graeme Hodgson, adjourned for several days to consider the request before declining to step down, which led to the case being rescheduled.

The final hearing dates have now been set, the public hearing will run from 27th January 2020 until 7th February 2020, and Rebecca is thus seeking funding to support her on-going case. “I need to raise my initial target of £30,000, and then work towards £40,000 by 12th November to present this case before tribunal,” said Rebecca.

Rebecca Burke said:

“In May 2017 I was shocked to discover that I had been singled out for redundancy. The suspicious circumstances led me through a slow and painful appeals process that eventually exposed the fact that TalkTalk had been paying me 40% less salary and 50% less bonus than the 3 other male Programme Directors that were in my team doing the same job.

Myself and my family have endured the years of financial and emotional stress in this fight for justice against a giant corporation. I have sacrificed my career, sanity and financial stability because I want to help build a fairer future for our young women and girls by holding our UK businesses to account when they break the equal pay laws that women fought so hard for 50 years ago.

This experience has opened my eyes to the gender discrimination and equal pay issues that women and girls are facing everywhere, everyday. I’m sharing this story with you so that you can join me in the fight for equal pay. This case is one of the first unfair dismissal and ‘like work’ equal pay cases of its kind in the UK, and so will create valuable case law to simplify equal pay cases in the future.”

A quick look at the ISP’s most recent Gender Pay statistics (here) reveals that women earn 82p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median hourly wages (their median hourly wage is 17.5% lower than men’s or 19.1% lower when using a “mean” average).

Women were also found to earn 77p for every £1 that men earn when comparing median bonus pay (their median bonus pay is 23.3% lower than men’s or 30.7% lower when using a “mean” average). Naturally TalkTalk are not happy.

A TalkTalk spokesperson said:

“We strongly refute these claims and we do not tolerate gender discrimination of any sort, including with regards to pay. This is an on-going case so we cannot comment any further, however we’re committed to treating all our employees fairly and we are confident there is no disparity in pay between genders.”

We understand that Rebecca was paid £110,000 a year, although it was reported last year that she was let go after 15 months in her job.

UPDATE 3:30pm

Added a comment from TalkTalk above.