We won’t back down2019 on call for top pay cap
RTÉ journalists defy union chiefs to persist in wage ceiling demand
UNREPENTANT RTÉ union chiefs have dismissed criticism from their own leadership and insisted the inflated wages paid to stars are the reason the broadcaster can’t secure more funding.
And the chair of the National Union of Journalists in RTÉ said the proposal has the ‘overwhelming support’ of its 300 members there.
‘There is no row between staff here. Absolutely not,’ said RTÉ NUJ chair Paul Murphy, who is an investigative reporter with Prime Time.
It follows reports that top presenters, some of them members of the NUJ, are furious at the motion passed by the union’s RTÉ branch last week.
NUJ Irish secretary Séamus Dooley also criticised the motion, saying NUJ members shouldn’t be calling for a cut in the wages of other NUJ members.
The motion said that the wages of NUJ members Seán O’Rourke and Miriam O’Callaghan, along with other high-paid management and staff including director-general Dee Forbes, Ryan Tubridy and Ray D’Arcy, should be capped immediately at €207,000, the equivalent of a secretary general in the civil service. It was passed by 31 votes to one with no abstentions.
Responding to criticism, Mr Murphy said the context of the meeting was the ‘deep financial peril’ in which RTÉ finds itself.
‘In that situation of course this motion is justified – €207,000 is still a very high salary,’ he said. ‘Any time RTÉ goes looking for more public money, the high salaries of the presenters are brought up very quickly. NUJ members knew we needed to act.’
Mr Murphy denied that some members had been shouted down but admitted there were robust exchanges at the meeting. However, one NUJ member who attended the meeting, said the wording of the motion released to the media was not the wording voted on at the meeting. He said the ‘salary figures, names and countries mentioned in the statement released’, were not included in the original motion. However, Mr Murphy said the adjustments to the wording were minor and didn’t change the meaning of the motion.
The chair of the meeting, RTÉ education correspondent Emma O’Kelly, also said she couldn’t understand why some were now trying to pick holes in the motion.
‘No one tabled any amendments to the motion on the day and if people have a problem, they are of course perfectly entitled to table a motion to rescind, but I haven’t heard of anyone planning to do that.’
NUJ Irish secretary Mr Dooley could not be contacted this week, but he previously stated the motion was in conflict with the union rule book because ‘the NUJ is opposed to unilateral amending of contracts of employment’.
However, RTÉ sources who spoke to the Irish Mail on Sunday this week confirmed there was overwhelming support for the motion.
‘We have people working together on programmes in RTÉ, where one person is paid 10 times more than the other. How is that right?’
Under RTÉ’s plan to save €60m over three years, 200 jobs will be cut; RTÉ’s Limerick studio will close; the RTÉ Concert Orchestra will move to the National Concert Hall, and the RTÉ Guide is to be sold. All RTÉ’s digital radio stations are also set to close, while top presenters will take a 15% pay cut, with senior management losing 10%.
‘No one tabled any amendments’