Revealed: Hundreds of BBC staff rehired after bumper pay-offs
THE BBC spent £33 million on redundancy payments for staff they later rehired, it has been revealed.
Critics have attacked the BBC for rehiring staff
Licence-fee payers will be furious that their cash is being wasted
Some 702 staff laid off since 2002 returned by last August – with 40% of them back as full-time employees.
And 60% took freelance contracts – many of them better paid than full-time roles.
Critics slammed the Corporation for wasting licence-fee payers' money.
Andy Silvester of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "It's time for the lucrative revolving door at Broadcasting House to finally grind to a halt.
"Licence-fee payers will be furious that their cash is being wasted on these generous golden goodbyes, only for those made redundant to waltz back onto the payroll."
Ex-director general George Entwistle was given a £450,000 'golden handshake'
Tory MP Bill Cash called for the Public Accounts Committee to examine the "creative accounting".
He said: "It's unconscionable.
"They run the BBC like a 17th century monopoly.
"One ought to assume that if someone is being made redundant, the word means what it says."
But the broadcaster defended the costs.
A spokesperson said: "The BBC employs about 3,000 fewer staff than in 2002, with a pay bill of £115 million less in real terms, while providing more services.
During a 12-year period it is inevitable that a small number of staff will leave and rejoin."
The BBC were widely criticised for a £450,000 severance payment to George Entwistle in 2012.
The former director general resigned after Tory peer Lord McAlpine was wrongly implicated in child abuse claims on BBC2's Newsnight.
A year later the Corporation announced that it would be capping redundancy pay-offs for senior staff at £150,000.