LONDON, (AFP) -The BBC paid millions of pounds in bonuses to its employees despite cost-cutting that forced it to shed 3,700 jobs, British newspapers reported Friday.

The publicly-funded broadcaster paid out 15.5 million pounds (22.9 million euros, 27.4 million dollars) to 10,000 of the 22,000 staff on the BBC payroll.

The BBC said the special bonuses, which were paid earlier this year and amounted to an average 1,500 pounds per employee, were capped at 10 per cent of salary and in line with those of similar organisations.

Trade magazine Broadcast unearthed the figures.

The BBC said the bonuses were included in the 1.0386 billion salaries and wages figure in the corporation's annual report. That figure, however, does not include the 546,000 pounds in bonuses to members of its executive board.

"The BBC has a long-standing pay policy which allows for small discretionary bonuses to be made as part of the BBC's overall budgeted annual pay bill," the BBC said in a statement.
"Bonuses are only given at the discretion of line managers in recognition of exceptional performance.

"This system helps ensure that the BBC attracts and retains the best staff, for the benefit of licence fee payers.
"It is not unusual practice and is in line with pay policies of other media organisations and many major companies."

The corporation added: "While managers are always mindful of the need to take great care with licence fee money, even during a period of cost-cutting it is vital to reward members of staff who deliver high quality work.

Gerry Morrissey, assistant general secretary of trade union Bectu, hit back.
"It's bad to be saying to one member of staff 'here's a bonus' and telling another member of staff that he's redundant," he told Broadcast.
The BBC announced in March it was slashing 3,780 jobs over three years to cut costs.

The organisation is funded by the licence fee, an annual levy on every television-owning household in Britain, which the BBC argues is a guarantee of its independence and quality.

A BBC spokeswoman told AFP: "For the senior executives, one of the attractions of going outside is that you get offered much more money if you work for commercial organisations.

"The media is a very competitive industry and people always try to poach quality people, so there has to be a way to keep the people you want."

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