BBC backlash as staff demand taxpayer funds pricey vegan options
POSH staff at the cash-strapped BBC are urging bosses to provide free oat milk as well as the normal kind — despite it being more than triple the price.
Employees at Radio 2 and 6 Music soured the mood with their non-dairy demands after moving into new studios.
They were mocked on-air by Radio 1 DJ Greg James as he broadcast from a neighbouring studio on the eighth floor of Broadcasting House in London.
On his breakfast show yesterday, he read out their email calling for a petition to make managers supply them with the oat product free of charge.
It had been sent to all staff at the corporation, which is having to find £400million in annual budget cuts following a TV licence price freeze.
Making his feelings clear, Greg, 38, said: “In a lot of offices, they provide a basic amount of milk and, honestly, I don’t think anyone on the eighth floor, who’ve been here for 13 years, would even dare to do anything like that.
“These people have just come in and they think they can change the world — and they probably can.
“I’m absolutely amazed. None of us have ever questioned it.
“We’re just like, ‘We’ll have the milk you give us.’”
Like many employers, the BBC provides free cows’ milk in kitchen fridges for employees to make tea and coffee breaks.
Most supermarkets sell semi-skimmed milk for as little as 63p a litre, while most one-litre cartons of oat milk cost at least £2.