RTÉ unions agree to take pay cuts

RTÉ UNION members have agreed to take voluntary pay cuts to help deal with a financial crisis at the station.

Staff voted by a margin of 57.4 per cent to 43.3 per cent to accept pay cuts of between 2.6 per cent and 12.5 per cent.

Management has insisted that the pay cuts are necessary to deal with a €68 million fall-off in advertising revenue this year.

About half of RTÉ staff are unionised and nearly all of those, who are members of either the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) or Siptu, voted in the ballot. The final result was 633 for and 484 against.

RTÉ director-general Cathal Goan thanked staff for agreeing to the cuts.

He said the results showed them “very clearly demonstrating a sense of responsibility both to themselves and to the Irish public on whose behalf we all work”.

In a circular to staff, he said the measures were both “fair and necessary” given that 2009 would be a difficult year both for those within the organisation and for licence fee payers.

The cuts are voluntary and will be made in the next pay packet. Management will be approaching each member of staff to persuade them to accept the cuts.

The measures were the subject of negotiation between management and the Trade Union Group in RTÉ. The ballot lasted for two weeks and involved often stormy encounters between Mr Goan and staff in a series of meetings.

Trade Union Group secretary Mary Curtin said the results reflected the realisation among staff about the financial crisis facing the organisation.

However, she warned that management should take into account the strong No vote which resulted from anger at levels of executive pay and remuneration and the “extravagant” bonus system in place at RTÉ.

Bonus payments were stopped last year and will not be paid this year. Ms Curtin said the Trade Union Group would be revisiting the issues of executive pay once they had reflected on the vote.

“The authority and the executive board need to reflect on the low morale among staff and take immediate measures to restore confidence in the organisation,” she said.

NUJ Irish secretary Séamus Dooley said RTÉ management should take heed of the strong no vote and “not take the Yes vote for granted”.

“Over the last fortnight it has become abundantly clear that there is a morale problem throughout the organisation,” Mr Dooley said. “Even those who voted yes did so reluctantly because of concern at the level of executive pay. Those issues will have to be addressed by the RTÉ Authority and the executive board.”