RTÉ contracts review to take 3 years
AN INVESTIGATION into cases of bogus self-employment at RTÉ could take another three years to complete.
The broadcaster had previously indicated that the review of employee classification – which has potential impacts for its tax liabilities – could take a decade-and-a half.
But the secretary-general at the Department of Social Protection has said they expect the review to move ‘substantially faster’ over the next few years.
The department has identified 695 cases where workers at the national broadcaster were classified as self-employed.
Emma O’Kelly, chair of the NUJ’s broadcasting branch, previously criticised the payments scandal at RTÉ as infuriating and said: ‘I have colleagues who were on bogus self-employed contracts, women who went on maternity leave and got no maternity pay, even though they were colleagues working day in, day out, rostered shifts just like me, who had no pension entitlements and no sick pay.’
Secretary-general John McKeon told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee that decisions have been made in 160 cases, with 535 still to be resolved.
He said that 126 of the cases being reviewed were limited company contractors.
‘Two-thirds of those have found that the worker was an employee rather than selfemployed, and one third have found that the worker was in fact self-employed,’ he said. ‘RTÉ have appealed 48 of the decisions and subsequently withdrew 13 appeals, and one of the workers has appealed the determination that they were self-employed. ‘I’d be optimistic that we will actually conclude those. I would have hoped originally that it would take us three years, not 15 years. ‘We’ve met with RTÉ. As you know, it’s an organisation that’s been through a bit of turmoil. But my sense is that we’ll be able to make a substantially faster progress in the next year or two,’ he added.
The Department of Social Protection has added 12 new staff to the Employment Status Investigation Unit, bringing the total number in the unit to 18.
Mr McKeon said that unit is looking at sectors where there is high self-employment – in 2023 they looked at 1,000 different workers across 300 employers.
‘The sectors we’re looking at the moment would be the media and journalism sector. We’re also looking at the airline sector, and we do tend to look at the higher education sector.’
Mr McKeon said the department was going to begin an investigation into higher education as the level of self-employment is increasing in that sector.
‘We’re looking at it purely because the data from the Central Statistics Office indicates that as a sector where the employment appears to be growing in the self-employed status,’ he said.