BBC staff ‘kept baby in a box’ at work

Published on Friday 10 February 2012 00:00

Janet Street-Porter let one of her staff keep their baby in a box when she was at the BBC, because they were so desperate to come back to work.

The broadcaster, who was head of youth and entertainment features, admitted it sounded like something out of the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, but said it worked out “fine”.

She said: “Years ago someone who was a key member of my team was pregnant and wanted to return to work quickly because she liked her job. I let her bring – probably breaking all the health and safety laws – her baby into the office in a box. We had baby in a box in the corner of the office.

“When they are little and they are tadpole size, they can’t get out. It’s fine, isn’t it?”

Her co-host, Lisa Maxwell, said childcare had been “an issue” while she was working long hours on police drama The Bill.

She said: “All the actresses got together and tried to get a creche. We did everything we could. We offered to put money in but in the end it was too expensive.”

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Hector the Lessor

Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 06:53 AM

#1 Family Guy. Actually maternity leave was introduced in the middle seventies. Then, the average response from employers of all categories was "I never made her pregnant, why should I contribute to bringing up her kid". I cannot remember the wording in the legislation but it stated that a woman should have paid leave in pregancy and her job available when she chose to come back to work. Unfortunately at that time I believe that the replacement staff also had rights to retain their job. I cannot be sure, I opted out of a small business long before this legislation came in. However sufficient to say that small businesses from then on were run by small businessmen with masochistic tendencies.

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Alternative (High Octane) Fuel Head

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 01:20 PM

Is Janet Street-Porter all there? This makes me wonder... for a start, the baby in the box (or drawer) is from the Brittas Empire, not Absolutely Fabulous and secondly, since when has a baby been the size of a tadpole?

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Family guy

Friday, February 10, 2012 at 07:52 AM

Please read between the lines here: What they are indicating is a reduction in maternity leave is on the cards and taking your bairn to the work place is acceptable. Effectively, they wish to send the UK back to Victorian times or further and bring kids up in a working environment to instill a work ethic into them. It is up to us if we wish to persue such a course.

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