BBC News presenter Martine Croxall is 'taking legal action' after being off air ... trends now
BBC News presenter Martine Croxall is due to take legal action against the BBC next month, it has emerged, more than a year after she was taken off air amid a channel merger.
The well-known broadcaster is listed for an employment tribunal against the corporation beginning on May 1, official documents have shown. Details of her claim remain unknown at this time.
It is set to be one of the most high-profile tribunals faced by the BBC since it lost a gender pay dispute with Newswatch presenter Samira Ahmed.
In 2020, the London hearing found that Ahmed should have been paid the same as fellow presenter Jeremy Vine for their work on Newswatch and Points Of View respectively. But the BBC argued the pair had not done similar work.
Croxall was one of five female BBC News presenters who were left in limbo last year when the BBC's News and World News channels merged.
BBC News presenter Martine Croxall (pictured) is due to take legal action against the BBC next month, it has emerged
Croxall was one of five female BBC News presenters who were left in limbo last year when the BBC's News and World News channels merged. Pictured: Croxall with Kaisa Madera, Geeta Guru Murthy, Annita McVeigh and Karin Giannone
Croxall is set to take the corporation to an employment tribunal beginning on May 1, official documents have shown. Details of her claim remain unknown at this time
Alongside broadcasters Annita McVeigh, Kasia Madera, Geeta Guru-Murthy and Karin Giannone, Croxall was shunned with little work to do. As the presenters were all due to return, they all continued to receive their full pay package.
The merger, however, left some of Croxall's colleagues, such as Joanna Gosling, David Eades and Tim Wilcox leaving for good.
On Christmas Eve all five remaining presenters were pictured together enjoying a drink at a pub. McVeigh posted: 'Season's Greetings to all my followers here, thanks for your support, and to these wonderful women for their friendship.'
The women had declined voluntary redundancies and for a time were left without job titles.
The women, who have more than 100 years experience between them, previously threatened legal action against the corporation, claiming they were unfairly selected for redundancy.
US news agency Deadline claimed the presenters were aggrieved at the 'humiliating' recruitment process which reportedly entailed the qualified presenters taking screen tests in a small studio with a manual autocue - despite the fact many names had years or decades of experience.
'I think they [Eades, Gosling, and Willcox] could not face the prospect of having to go through this ignominious process,' one person with knowledge of the process was previously reported as saying in January.
A second said: 'People are incandescent. It's humiliating - you feel like you're 21 again and applying for your first job on the BBC.'
In 2022, she was briefly taken off air after breaking the corporation's impartiality rules when reporting that Boris Johnson was stepping down from the Tory leadership race
