LEO STEPS INTO ROW OVER RTE SALARIES
Taoiseach: people who work harder or deliver more SHOULD be paid more
LEO Varadkar has waded into the row on gender pay gaps – insisting some work- ers deserve to be paid more than others. In an exclusive interview with the Irish Daily Mail, the Taoiseach said that when it comes to the equity of workplace salaries, ‘each individual
is different’ – and that to look solely at gender but exclude experience or results would be too simplistic.
Mr Varadkar said he believes in equal pay for equal work, but added that those who work longer hours, deliver better
results or have more experience should be better paid.
The pay-scale controversy hit new heights when it emerged at the weekend that RTÉ’s Six One newscaster Bryan Dobson makes up to €80,000 more than his coanchor Sharon Ní Bheoláin.
Other prominent female RTÉ staff have now waded into the debate, demanding more transparency from the State broadcaster. The wage furore has been prompted by a similar controversy at the BBC which last week revealed there are a disproportionate number of male employees among its highest-paid staff.
The controversy has sparked a debate about men and women’s pay across the public and private sector. However, yesterday the Taoiseach said the issue is more complex than how some are presenting it.
‘I don’t think it can be just as simple as equal pay based on one criterion. I think you do need to look at individuals, and each individual is different,’ the Taoiseach told the Mail in a wide-ranging interview, the second part of which will appear tomorrow.
‘The factors at play might be more than gender, for example. It’s a fact that the norm in the public sector is that people do get paid more based on their tenure, based on experience. People who work longer hours get paid more.’
However, the Taoiseach added: ‘I do believe there is, at least on the face of it, evidence that where there’s a man and a woman with the same talent, the same experience, the same hours worked, bringing in the same revenue, that maybe they aren’t always paid equally. That is discrimination, in my view.’
His remarks set a different tone to those of RTÉ political correspondent Martina Fitzgerald, who wrote in yesterday’s Irish Times: ‘This gender pay disparity cannot be brushed aside with arguments such as length of service.
‘It is only in recent times that increasing numbers of women have attained senior positions in their career areas. If length of service is allowed to be the main factor in determining pay, women will never close the pay gap with men.’
At the weekend, Sharon Ní Bheoláin called for RTÉ’s gender pay gap to be examined after she revealed that she earns ‘considerably less’ than her more senior male coanchor, Bryan Dobson.
The Taoiseach said he welcomed the fact that RTÉ is going to carry out its review into pay in the organisation and said the Tánaiste and Enterprise Minister, Frances Fitzgerald, is to examine the issue across the economy under the Government’s Strategy On Women and Girls – which will compel larger businesses to fill in wage surveys and confess gender pay gaps, where they exist. ‘She has taken on a look a gender pay gaps, not just in RTÉ, but across the corporate sector,’ he told the Mail. ‘One of the things we would like to do is require larger employers to submit a survey of pay levels with their organisations.’
The Fine Gael leader was criticised in some quarters for failing to promote more women in his first reshuffle as Taoiseach. He had declared himself a feminist but said it was ‘up to others’ to decide whether he is or not.
In his sit-down interview with the Mail, he was asked whether demoted Mary Mitchell O’Connor had made equality arguments to him when seeking to stay in Cabinet.
He said: ‘I am always sensitive to the need to have diversity in decision-making, because I actually believe it’s the right thing. You get better decisions and you get better buy-in (from the public) if you have diversity around the table. Diversity isn’t just about gender; there are other factors as well, and I sometimes think people see diversity only through the prism of their own case, gender, or race or socioeconomic background.
‘I don’t think that’s the right way to approach diversity.
‘There are 12 female TDs who support the Government, and seven of those 12 are ministers, including the Tánaiste and five members of Cabinet, and three are chairs of Oireachtas committees.’
Mr Varadkar added he will be introducing a gender quota on a voluntary basis for the next local elections ahead of a general election candidate quota of 40% females in the general election after next.
Comment – Page 12 senan.molony@dailymail.ie
‘Not just based on one criterion’ ‘Sensitive to need for diversity’