Irish Independent: One in five jobs to go at RTÉ in wake of payments scandal; leaking of strategy a ‘further blow to trust of staff’, says NUJ

Story from Irish Independent:

One in five jobs will go in RTÉ as part of a wide-ranging plan to cut costs.

Some 400 redundancies are being targeted in the plan in the wake of the RTÉ payments scandal.

The plan will be announced to staff tomorrow by RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst.

In a statement released this evening, the Trade Union Group (TUG), representing RTÉ workers, demanded the station release “the full document to staff immediately”.

"It is not acceptable that staff should find out about the plan in this way and now be worried about the security of their jobs,” the statement read.

Seamus Dooley, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), labelled the leaking of RTÉ strategy a “further blow to trust of staff”.

"We are gravely concerned at the scale of the proposed redundancies and will require detailed information on how it is proposed to maintain core services and the impact on staff of such drastic proposals.”

Trade unions representatives are scheduled to meet the director general at noon tomorrow ahead of the staff briefing. However Mr Dooley said both events “are in danger of being an empty charade” after they were declined early sight of the strategy document, for reasons of confidentiality

Mr Dooley said: “The National Union of Journalists supports the call by the RTÉ Trade Union Group for immediate circulation of the strategy document. I acknowledge that the director general wants to put his proposals in context but that ship has now sailed and the only way to allay the fears of staff is immediate release of the document.”

Teresa Hannick, divisional organiser at Siptu, which represents up to 1,000 staff at RTÉ, said she was shocked at the number of redundancies being sought.

“Once again the staff are finding out about their future through leaks in the media,” she said.

“I’m absolutely shocked by the number, 400 in four years. That’s 100 people a year to 2028.”

She said she does not know if all of the redundancies will be voluntary, but will not be accepting anything else.

The Strategic Plan aims at "reductions in headcount and overheads but also through how we do our work".

A target of 20pc of jobs is outlined. The redundancies of 400 staff will cost €40m.

The plan says RTÉ will commission significantly more content from independent production.

It also says RTÉ will be a streamlined, more modern and simplified organisation.

Among the services to be closed include RTÉ Plus One, RTÉ Radio 1 Extra, RTÉ 2 XM, RTÉ Pulse and RTÉ Junior.

A new corporate governance framework will “uphold the highest standards of transparency and accountability”.

The board of the crisis-ridden broadcaster signed off on the plan for cutbacks at the national broadcaster.

The plan is expected to include redundancies and reductions in services, and also outline decisions on part-privatisation of elements of the station and a sell off of some of the land at the Donnybrook headquarters.

Speaking at the Siptu biennial conference in Galway, Siptu’s Teresa Hannick, said unions will get a “walkthrough” of the new document by director general Kevin Bakhurst at a staff briefing at noon tomorrow.

Ms Hannick said some staff in “certain sections” of the organisation are very concerned that they will be “sold off”.

“We knew that something was going to happen,” she said. “We kind of expected it was going to be rough but I would be very concerned about this.”

She said previous voluntary redundancy packages were worth four weeks per year of service on top of statutory redundancy.

The union is planning to table an emergency motion at the conference in relation to the RTÉ cost-cutting plan.

The national broadcaster is facing a €61m shortfall in licence fee revenue this year and next year on foot of the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal.

RTÉ has already said it will fall €34.5m short in revenue this year, even before the scandal hit, but the Government has only provided €16m extra.

The Coalition has put an additional €40m of a bailout on the table, subject to RTÉ coming up with a comprehensive list of reforms.

RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst has got agreement on his plan from the board of the broadcaster.

The document was sent to Media Minister Catherine Martin for consideration by the Government.

RTÉ says its “outline document setting out a new direction” has been approved by the board.

“This strategic vision is the first step in engaging with RTÉ’s many stakeholders – government, RTÉ staff, the media, the public, our audience, independent producers, regulators, service providers, and others – on the future of RTÉ.

“Feedback from stakeholders will inform the development of RTÉ’s Statement of Strategy for 2024 – 2028, which is due in the new year,” an RTÉ statement said.

The Government has predicted a €21m fall in licence fee revenue in 2023 and another €40 million loss in 2024.

Asked about the prospect of the Government granting more cash to RTÈ, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed the strategic plan from the station’s director general, Kevin Backhurst, had been received and was under consideration.

He said it was not likely to go before Government for decision this week and he was among those who wanted to give it further consideration.

Mr Varadkar said RTÈ was seeking €40m in emergency taxpayer funding to keep functioning and the issue of long-term funding at the station would then be looked at. He said the Government was conscious that the station was a public service and did not want it to fail – but the issue of precisely how much interim funding to be given has yet to be decided.

Media Minister Catherine Martin has said she is prepared to provide RTÉ with an additional bailout of €40m subject to being satisfied with its cost-cutting plan. She says the plan would need to identify cutbacks and savings.

The minister has said that the Government is looking for “genuine cost-saving measures and cost efficiencies”.

The strategic vision is also viewed as an opportunity for RTÉ to show its commitment to public service broadcasting and reform its structures.

The Government doesn’t want a “menu of options” from Mr Bakhurst, but instead his vision to be presented to Government colleagues.

However, the Government has already ruled out compulsory redundancies as it would cause too much rancour with unions as RTÉ is a semi-state body. The privatisation of 2FM has been frequently spoken about within Government circles.

The sell-off of RTE’s Montrose site has been examined, but Mr Bakhurst has indicated this is unlikely to be feasible. But the sale of a further part of the lucrative site is still a possibility.

Labour spokesperson on arts and media Marie Sherlock expressed her shock at the potential scale of workforce reductions.

She said: "While we await to get a full picture of the RTÉ plan tomorrow, reports that RTÉ is set to make such a dramatic reduction in its workforce will be deeply shocking not only to those who rely on and enjoy RTÉ, but predominantly for the workers at RTÉ who have all experienced an immensely turbulent time working for the broadcaster in recent months.

"Our thoughts are with all RTÉ workers who are no doubt at a loss for words at this news.

"Throughout the past few months, we have heard from many RTÉ workers about their stretched capacity and the difficulties they are facing in terms of ensuing fully operational teams. Cutting workers does not seem like the silver bullet management seem to think it is."

Ms Sherlock said that the scale of the reductions "leaves a question mark over RTÉ's commitment not just to news and current affairs, but also to sport, entertainment, the arts, music and an Gaeilge".