RTE staff reject £30,000 offer

RTE employees who have been seconded to Cablelink for years, have rejected a £30,000 (€38,000) offer from the station to surrender their contracts.

Meanwhile, bids for the Cablelink franchise, expected to make more than £360 million, must be lodged by midday today.

It is understood that some 30-plus RTE employees did not accept RTE's "full and final" offer of £30,000 per person to surrender their contracts, in advance of Cablelink's transfer to new owners. Employee sources said yesterday that they had not even been shown any new contract terms.

It is understood that the employees, the majority of whom are SIPTU members, have been taking legal advice on the issue. They have letters guaranteeing their employment in RTE, similar to the documentation which TEAM workers held.

The employees would also have been entitled to a further £10,000 - a "goodwill payment" - which Cablelink is negotiating to pay staff.

Mr Jimmy Jordan, SIPTU's broadcasting sector branch secretary, said yesterday he understood that nobody had taken up the RTE offer. He said people had not been inclined to give up the security of RTE.

He said RTE had said it was a full and final offer, nobody had taken it up, but if the State broadcaster had something new to offer, they were prepared to talk again.

Last night an RTE spokeswoman said negotiations were "at a very delicate stage" and RTE did not want to comment further. Meanwhile, the five parties bidding for Cablelink are faxing in their bids to merchant bankers NM Rothschild this morning.

Bidders include Esat Telecom which has linked up with US cable group Charter Communications, owned by Microsoft co-founder Mr Paul Allen; Tele-Communications Inc (TCI)/Princess Holdings; US group NTL (currently cabling Northern Ireland through Cabletel) and United Pan-European Communications (UPC), a Dutch cable communications group. Another bidder is Cable Management International (CMI).

The sale is expected to go through within weeks.