Stars’ pay cut stance keeps Irish rugby in healthy place

PEACE in our time. After a month of fraught pay negotiations that threatened Irish rugby’s delicate eco-system, the players and the IRFU finally reached agreement that will carry the game here through until the end of 2020.

When the two parties next meet to discuss the union’s wage bill, it is hoped that the game will be back up and running with some level of normality and that income will again be flowing.

Chief executive Philip Browne has been consistent in his messaging, reiterating time and again that revenues fell off a cliff in late February when rugby ground to a standstill as a result of Covid-19.

Quickly, he got Rugby Players Ireland on a call and they worked out a pay deferral scheme that bought the organisation some time.

The agreement, which covered everyone working for the IRFU and the provinces, saw top earners bear the brunt of the temporary cuts on a scale of 10%-50%, with those on low incomes protected fully.

Quickly, it became apparent to the union that the deferral scheme would only get them so far. On May 22, Browne held a press conference where he prepared the ground.

“I don’t think we can continue that indefinitely because what you’re building up is a liability month on month on month on month and we can’t have a situation where that continues indefinitely,” he said.

A month later, the union moved to bring the deferral scheme to an end.

First, they imposed a fourday week on non-playing employees in what equated to a 20% pay cut.

Having informed the staff, their next job was to achieve a similar result with players but things got tricky when news of their intentions appeared in a newspaper before it had been proposed in negotiations.

That led to anger among senior players and RPI took the unusual step of issuing a statement expressing that they were “very disappointed”.

That statement appeared on June 14. Agreement was a month away.

The parties met the following Wednesday and would convene each week until they hammered out a deal. On one side of the table, RPI chief executive Simon Keogh was flanked by two senior men from BDO in managing partner Michael Costello and tax expert Ciaran Medlar.

The IRFU’S representatives Browne and director of finance Conor O’brien agreed to show the players’ representatives their books, so that the full extent of the financial picture could be assessed.

Despite the level of upset about the way the 20% figure hit the headlines, there was an acceptance among players that they would have to take some pain.

However, there was determination to protect those on academy and development deals, while the 20% flat-rate cut was viewed as excessive.

Negotiations rumbled on with the delegates meeting on a weekly basis. The deferral agreement expired on June 30, but despite the union’s need to conclude a deal the players wouldn’t be rushed.

By then, the players had returned to training ahead of rugby’s resumption on August 22.

However, the likelihood is that matches will take place either behind closed doors or in front of limited crowds which keeps the pressure on the union coffers. Browne has said that the impact of the remaining Six Nations matches and the November internationals taking place behind closed doors would be a loss of between £9m-£13.6m.

Last week, there were positive noises about a deal when the parties broke on Wednesday. They reconvened on Monday and reached a settlement that saw the IRFU settle for an even split of 10% cuts and 10% deferrals until the end of 2020.

Crucially for RPI, players earning below £22,700 per annum will not be affected and 5% of the deferred funds are potentially subject to a retrospective salary reduction if the situation has not improved.

The situation will be reviewed in December.

Relations between the union and RPI have long been cordial as they worked towards the common goal of making Ireland the best place in the world to play rugby. However, the crisis tested that bond.

The senior men’s game delivers 80% of the organisation’s revenue and that is through men, with short careers, laying their bodies on the line.

By standing their ground and working out a deal, the players showed they are more than just silent partners and that is a healthy place to be.