RTÉ STAFF are to be balloted from next week on proposals for pay cuts being sought by management to reduce a projected €68 million deficit for this year.
Some 320 staff, mostly members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and Siptu, met in the Late Late Showstudio in Donnybrook, Dublin, yesterday to discuss plans to reduce the pay bill at the State broadcaster by some €10 million this year.
Angry scenes erupted at the meeting as staff claimed there was not enough transparency about the bonuses, understood to range from €6,000 to €20,000, being received by senior management. Moreover, some speakers demanded that the unions refuse to ballot staff until these ceased.
Under the broadcaster’s proposals, staff earning more than €250,000 would take a pay cut of 12.5 per cent, those earning between €100,000 and €150,000 would take cuts of between 6.5 and 8 per cent and those earning between €50,000 and €100,000 face reductions of between 4.5 and 6 per cent .
Workers earning between €26,000 and €50,000 face cuts of between 2.35 and 3.7 per cent, while staff earning less than €25,000 would take no pay cut.
The proposed agreement includes a review clause noting that the reductions are to stay in place until December 31st, 2010.
At that point, the trade union group will be entitled to nominate someone to carry out an assessment “to make upward salary adjustments until such a time as the impact of the pay cuts has been . . . fairly addressed”.
It is proposed that privilege days given to staff at Easter and Christmas are to be cut in 2009 and 2010, while there would also be a reduction in travel and subsistence rates. Plans to limit overtime and introduce an early retirement scheme are also included.
Management has indicated that if the measures are implemented there will be no need for redundancies.
RTÉ pays €11.9 million to 243 contractors, but 30 of those, mostly high-paid presenters, earn more than €100,000 a year. But it is understood that for legal and confidentiality reasons the scale of pay reductions facing the station’s top earners will not be publicised.
