Over 80 RTÉ freelancers reclassified after report finds 'attributes akin to employment'

In a letter to the Public Accounts Committee Ms Forbes states that of the 82 employees subsequently offered direct contracts, some 79 had accepted same.

RTÉ offered 82 workers direct PAYE contracts after discovering they had “developed attributes more akin to employment”.

Director General of the State Broadcaster Dee Forbes said that on the back of an external report by consultants Eversheds Sutherland in 2018 the State broadcaster had updated its policy and process with regard to the hiring of freelancers.

On the back of that report 157 contractors were identified as having “attributes akin to employment”.

In a letter to the Public Accounts Committee Ms Forbes states that of the 82 employees subsequently offered direct contracts, some 79 had accepted same.

It’s unclear whether or not those reclassified employees will have their social insurance back payments covered also.

The Eversheds report had reviewed a list of 433 freelancers working for the broadcaster. Once contracts were offered to individuals, they were given a month to decide to accept or reject the deal on offer.

Ms Forbes said that “all individuals were offered an employment contract in line with the agreed RTÉ grades”. She said it is not possible to give specific details on the individual contracts offered.

“Individuals were engaged as contractors at the outset of their relationship withRTÉ,” she said. “Over time some of those individuals developed attributes more akin to employment.

“It is difficult to determine at what point in the relationship, an individual became more like an employee rather than a contractor,” she said.

She added that RTÉ has agreed to meet with trade unions at the conclusion of the contract review process “to review any open issues as regards retrospection or any other issue”.

RTÉ has now developed a “guiding principle” of ‘Employment First’, Ms Forbes said, which “simply means that where an individual is coming into RTÉ to provide services, the hiring manager must first seek to employ them”.

“The individual can only be engaged as a contractor if there is a clear reason as to why the work/project is for a short period of time or requires the specialist skill of a contractor,” she said.

The issue of bogus self employment, as could be said to have applied to the individuals in RTÉ who were offered direct contracts following the Eversheds review, was to the fore at this week’s public PAC hearing, which heard from activist Martin McMahon on the matter.

Mr McMahon, who has been campaigning on the issue for 25 years, said that such bogus employment is costing the State “conservatively” €1 billion per year in lost social insurance contributions from employers.

He said that a failure to deal with the matter is primarily responsible for Ireland’s current pensions crisis.

“There is no pensions crisis, there is a ‘failure to collect employers’ PRSI crisis’,” he said.

“This has been going on for 40 years, and the way things are going it will go on for another 40.” 

Asked how the situation could be amended, he said that he would “support legislation that stops workers from facing a system that is rigged against them”.