RTÉ to cut up to 60 jobs

Broadcaster RTÉ is looking to shed up to 60 jobs from its workforce in response to its financial situation.

Management met with union representatives this morning to discuss the broadcaster's financial situation.

It was confirmed this afternoon that plans for voluntary redundancy and early retirement programmes are being prepared, and further details will be discussed at a meeting on March 23rd.

Between 50 and 60 posts will be covered by the programmes.

RTÉ is also seeking a continuation of the current pay reduction, which was implemented in 2009, when staff toook cuts of between 2.6 per cent to 12.5 per cent in a bid to plug a €67 million gap in RTÉ's budget that was the result of a fall-off in advertising revenue.

In January, staff were told that the company could not afford to reverse the pay cuts, and were warned that RTÉ would seek further reductions due to changes to licence fee allocations in the last Budget and the rollout of digital terrestrial television (DTT), which will cost €70 million.

Increments were also stopped for a year from 2009, but restored last year. RTÉ is seeking another suspension of increments for 12 months, and promised a review at the end of this period. The non-payment of these incremements is being referred to the conciliation process of the RTE Industrial Relations Tribunal.