Unions assess five-year strategy on future of RTÉ

Unions at RTÉ have been assessing plans announced by the broadcaster yesterday that would see a reduction in the workforce and the production of some programmes being moved off site.

The workforce would be reduced by 400 and the production of the Late Late Show and Fair City will involve an independent company under a new five-year strategy called ‘A New Direction’, RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst told staff.

SIPTU, which represents 700 employees in RTÉ, said its members were shocked and surprised at the announcement, while the National Union of Journalists said the plan would present many challenges for staff at RTÉ and must be subject to intense scrutiny and negotiation.

SIPTU Industrial Organiser Martin Mannion described the plan as not a blueprint for improving RTÉ but rather a clear move towards privatisation.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Mannion has said the broadcaster needed to be more transparent about how the Late Late Show and Fair City will be produced.

“Changes like this… people need to be truthful about it, and to suggest that it’s just moving productions off site isn’t being truthful,” he said.

Mr Mannion added the proposed changes will lead to inferior working conditions for people who are currently working on programmes which could be moved off site.

“This is management’s proposal on what they wish to do and what they’re intending to do,” he said.

“We oppose this because it will lead to inferior working conditions for the people who do that work.

“While he [Mr Bakhurst] does refer to it as being off site and it could be a hybrid model… it did come out that this would be an outsourcing of work that it would be done in the independent sector and not be carried out by people who work within RTÉ.

Mr Mannion said he believes the majority of the predicted reduction in RTÉ’s workforce could be among SIPTU members.

“I suspect we should be working to take the bulk of the impact from any job losses here when you look at what’s being proposed.

NUJ Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley expressed grave reservations initially at the approach taken by Mr Bakhurst and the RTÉ Board on the future of the organisation.

“None of the changes being proposed have any relevance to the reason why we are in this crisis, which relates to corporate management failure combines with Government delays in funding,” Mr Dooley told the same programme.

“There is a danger that RTÉ will become a publisher, along the lines of Channel 4. We don’t believe that would be an appropriate model.

“I don’t take any consolation that as of now News and Current Affairs appears to be less at risk than other areas,” he said.