BBC issues apology to former employee over homophobic slurs

The BBC has issued an apology to one of its former presenters, following a review that revealed he had been repeatedly subjected to homophobic slurs.

Jack Murley used to work for the corporation as a radio presenter, before he was sacked two years ago in the wake of comments he posted on social media. Murley then took the BBC to an employment tribunal on the grounds of anti-gay discrimination. He lost the case for unfair dismissal, but an investigation conducted by the BBC itself found that he had endured homophobic comments from colleagues.

These included a BBC manager telling him that he should try to make himself sound “less gay” when presenting. This was in response to a complaint Murley made to the manager about abuse from listeners.

Now he has received an apology from Jason Horton, who is one of the BBC’s chief operating officers. A spokesperson for the company also stated that the employees who abused Murley have now gone.

This case shows a failure to build an inclusive workplace culture. It illustrates once again the need for organisations to have strong HR teams. These can be in-house or an external employee relations consultant in Hertfordshire. The point is to ensure that discrimination claims are taken seriously and properly investigated.

Darshika Shingadia works in HR for Greenpeace. She said HR was vital to making sure inclusion policies and values are put into action, instead of being just words on a page.

She added that responses to discrimination complaints show how serious organisations are about inclusion.