BBC bosses have been hit by a soaring number of bullying and harassment complaints, official stats revealed today.
The Beeb is facing seven formal grievances every month – up by 70 per cent compared to last year.
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And managers are taking more than three months to resolve complaints on average.
The damning revelations came in the BBC’s annual report, which also shows stars are getting paid £11million more than they were a year ago.
The public broadcaster has come under fire for taking free TV licences away from the over-75s.
The report showed that in 2018/19, 86 BBC staff members were accused of bullying or harassment via the organisation’s grievance process.
There were also eight disciplinary cases related to bullying which came from outside the HR process.
In the previous year, there were 51 cases dealt with by the BBC.
On average, it took bosses 108 days to “close a case”, up from 78 days in 2017/18.
The BBC claimed the rise was due to a proactive campaign encouraging staff to speak up about major issues.
The corporation said: ” During the year, we published a refreshed Bullying and Harassment policy and have run a number of campaigns, encouraging staff to speak up about these issues and to report incidents, though a variety of means, should they arise.
“This has led to an increase in case numbers year on year, which is to be expected given the scale and impact of our campaigns – we welcome the fact that our staff feel enabled to raise issues and to have them properly looked at.”
The Beeb has set up a confidential hotline for worried workers to report bullying complaints.
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