LAST UPDATE | 24 Apr

THE NATIONAL UNION of Journalists has called on Media Minister Catherine Martin to “end the uncertainty over the funding” of RTÉ.

Representatives of multiple trade unions are appearing before the Oireachtas Media Committee today to discuss governance and culture issues at RTÉ. 

The issue of bogus self-employment contracts for RTÉ workers has dominated discussions at the committee this afternoon and committee members have clashed with union representatives over the issue. 

Brendan Byrne of Unite the Union accused politicians on the committee of “union bashing” and “grandstanding” as they criticised unions for not protecting workers from being exploited on bogus self-employment contracts. 

“Don’t be grandstanding here,” he said of TDs Imelda Munster and Brendan Griffin as well as Senator Micheál Carrigy. 

Carrigy asked him to withdraw he comment, saying: “There’s no grandstanding here,” he said. 

Byrne refused to withdraw the comment and said that protections for workers should be made stronger. 

TD Mattie McGrath said the unions were part of the problem and “happy to be part of the system”. 

The union representatives defended themselves, arguing that bogus self-employment is hard to detect and prove and that freelance workers cannot be represented by union. 

The NUJ’s Seámus Dooley said that unions have been trying to fight against bogus self-employment contracts for over 20 years, rejecting committee members’ accusations that unions have not defended workers. 

In its opening statement to the Joint Oireachtas Committee, the NUJ also voiced concern about planned job cuts at RTÉ in order to bridge public funding gaps.

Emma O’Kelly, RTÉ journalist and chair of the NUJ’s Dublin broadcasting branch, has outlined “concerns” about the vision for RTÉ as outlined in the New Direction Strategic Vision document.

O’Kelly said that the staff at RTÉ were devastated and upset when the payments scandal became public last summer but that it also “felt like a dam bursting”. 

She said staff had hoped the news of undisclosed payments made to star presenter Ryan Tubridy would be a catalyst for change but almost a year on “we still feel like we’re flailing”.

A lack of resources continues to affect workers at RTÉ, she said. “We struggle to do our jobs” in the newsroom, she said as staff “can’t get the most basic equipment”.

She said finding a working printer is a “lottery” and that many are regularly broken. 

She said the RTÉ building was “falling apart” and that there had been no investment in it for years. 

“We’re absolutely stretched,” she said, expressing worry over the broadcaster’s capacity to cover the upcoming elections properly. 

O’Kelly told the Committee in her opening statement that “staff are concerned that the organisation is being in effect held to ransom” and that there is concern that “funding decisions are being delayed while RTÉ continues to teeter on the brink of disaster”.

She argued that the license fee model is no longer fit for purpose and that public service media needs to be supported by a “new sustainable and equitable funding model”. She said she was in favour of direct Exchequer funding for the broadcaster. 

In March, Media Minister Catherine Martin said she was committed to making a decision on a new funding model for RTÉ by the summer.

O’Kelly also outlined concerns that much of the work currently done in house will be outsourced to the private sector.

“We are concerned that those jobs will be replaced by mostly precarious short-term contracts in the private sector, where workers move from short-term contract to short-term contract with no rights to things like pensions, or holiday pay, or maternity leave,” O’Kelly said.

She added that this is a working environment “that especially damages women”.

She noted that staff at RTÉ cannot understand why jobs are being cut at the broadcaster.

O’Kelly said that a crisis was being used “to drive through an agenda” of privatization. 

O’Kelly also remarked that while the NUJ fully supports the growing independent sector, it should not be achieved at the expense of jobs in RTÉ.

“Why is RTÉ being cut?” she said. “Why do programmes have to be privatized wholesale now?”

Meanwhile, SIPTU representatives have told TDs and Senators that they “cannot overstate” the sense of betrayal among RTÉ staff when the disclosures in summer 2023 revealed that “not everyone was treated the same” at the state broadcaster.

Speaking ahead of the Committee, SIPTU’s services divisional organiser Teresa Hannick said members have had “deep misgivings relating to the governance of RTÉ for several years”.

She also criticised staff finding out about the proposed job losses outlined in the New Direction document via leaks to the media.

The unions made repeated reference to the issue of bogus self-employment contracts at the public broadcaster.

Under a cost-saving strategic vision published by RTÉ in November, the broadcaster announced plans to cut 400 jobs through voluntary redundancies over the next two years. 

SIPTU today told the Oireachtas Media Committee that since this announcement, RTÉ has not communicated with staff exactly where the 400 job cuts will come from. 

SIPTU represents the largest and most diverse group of workers at RTÉ, including administrative staff, musicians and actors. 

RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakurst has publicly stated that there will be no job losses for News and Current Affairs, which SIPTU says suggests that most of the job losses will be incurred by its members. 

“It is extremely difficult to engage constructively with an employer who launches an ambiguous document labelled a strategic vision for the future with no real detail on where these 400 job losses will come from, nor how they will be achieved, and nothing on what could be the implications on the lives of the workers that are left behind,” SIPTU will tell the Committee today.

Fair City

The union also raised concerns relating to Fair City staff and members of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. 

SIPTU said that members have been told that there will be “no filming” for Fair City in July and August because technical staff will be covering UEFA Euro 2025, the Paris Olympics and the GAA Championship which “require huge resources”.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) outlined the challenge it has been for RTÉ staff to continue working “against a backdrop of unfolding scandals”.

The NUJ stressed that the crisis at RTÉ is “multifaceted” and noted that successive Governments have “failed to address” the critical issue of funding public service broadcasting in Ireland. 

The NUJ also called for the immediate publication of the outstanding report into contractor fees and human resources at RTÉ. 

This and a second report on Culture and Governance have been delayed since early this year.

On the strategic vision published by RTÉ management in November, the NUJ told the committee today that it does not believe 400 job cuts are required at the broadcaster. 

“The level of job losses envisaged cannot be achieved without having a negative impact on editorial output,” the NUJ said. 

Overall, the NUJ said that it does not believe the November strategy is the appropriate basis for ensuring the continued existence and enhancement of RTÉ.

Representatives from Connect Trade Union and Unite have also appeared before today’s committee at 1.30pm.

Unite’s opening statement focused on the “misclassification of workers’ employment status”, or what it refers to as the “bogus self-employed”.

It noted that the Department of Social Enterprise is currently investigating whether close to 700 RTÉ workers should have been classified as full employees.

Unite remarked that “bogus self-employment” creates inequality in the workplace, as one worker is on a permanent contract with associated benefits, while another in the same or equivalent roles has their employment misclassified and is denied these benefits.

With reporting from David Mac Redmond