'Bogus self-employment contracts a stain on RTÉ', Oireachtas committee to hear

The Oireachtas Media Committee and the unions representing RTÉ workers will discuss the 'misclassification of workers’ employment status'. Picture:Colin Keegan

The use of bogus self-employment contracts at RTÉ will be described as “a stain” on the reputation of the broadcaster, an Oireachtas meeting on the subject will hear.

Separately, some of RTÉ’s confirmed bogus self-employed workers, both past and present, are expected to hold a demonstration at the gates of the Dáil at midday on Wednesday, in advance of a meeting between the Oireachtas Media Committee and the unions representing RTÉ workers.

Two topics will be discussed at the meeting: The future of RTÉ itself, and the "procedures and processes relating to the misclassification of workers’ employment status”.

Bogus self-employment is the practice of hiring workers on self-employed contracts with no statutory benefits or entitlements, despite their duties being identical to that of direct employees.

RTÉ is currently the subject of a review of the contracts of 695 workers, past and present, by the employment status section of the Department of Social Protection, with the liability expected to result from that review currently estimated by the broadcaster at being roughly €15m — although other estimates have put the expected liability at multiple times that figure.

Appearing for the National Union of Journalists, RTÉ’s education correspondent Emma O’Kelly will tell the committee that “the use of bogus self-employment contracts is a stain on RTÉ’s reputation”.

She will say that the use of such contracts historically “was an attempt to keep staff costs down, denying workers fundamental rights”.

Ms O’Kelly will state that, despite 93 RTÉ workers to date being told that they were in effect full employees of the broadcaster, “many workers in RTÉ are being forced to pursue legal options in the face of an obstinate employer”.

RTÉ staff members previously staged a lunchtime picket in February over then on going issues at the station.

One of those workers — whose employment decision was one of 20 to date which have been appealed unsuccessfully by RTÉ — was recently informed by the broadcaster that their contract would not be back-dated for the six years they spent bogus self-employed, nor would any retrospective entitlements in terms of pension entitlements or holidays be made available.

To date, none of the 93 workers has received any form of compensation for years of lost benefits from RTÉ.

Many of the bogus self-employed have expressed their dissatisfaction at not being allowed to address Wednesday’s meeting in person to describe their experiences, with the unions’ — notably Siptu — acquiescence to that requirement harshly criticised.

Siptu representatives will, meanwhile, tell the hearing that employment status remains “an issue that is still ongoing in RTÉ”, and will note that even among workers who have since become full employees of the station  — such as actors on the soap Fair City — many have not been given a contract of indefinite duration. 

This is despite some of them having worked on the programme for more than 20 years.

“This whole fiasco is down to RTÉ’s mismanagement when it came to hiring workers.

“RTÉ have fought hard to ignore these claims, and when finally, they were forced to deal with them, refused to accept the full totality of our members’ claims and refused to include any mention of their pension liabilities," they will say. 

Regarding the future strategy of RTÉ, Ms O’Kelly will tell the committee that she fears RTÉ’s plan to cut 400 jobs at the station by 2028 could lead to “the privatisation of large swathes of RTÉ”.

“This is something that we will oppose,” she will say.