RTÉ current affairs staff feared speaking up over problems with gender balance and transparency

RTÉ staff working in the broadcaster’s current affairs division reported a fear of speaking out, a lack of transparency, and restricted promotional opportunities for women to an independent workplace audit.

The broadcaster’s human resources department had in late 2021 hired Miriam Maher of workplace relations consultants Resolve Ireland to audit the “nature of the culture and working relationships” within the current affairs division.

RTÉ was last month directed by the Information Commissioner to release her report having previously refused to do so. Ms Maher’s report was completed last year and predates the current controversy at RTÉ in relation to payments to its highest paid presenter Ryan Tubridy.

The audit focused on interviews with staff working on the TV programmes Prime Time and RTÉ Investigates, as well as Claire Byrne Live, which has since been discontinued.

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Staff working on the Claire Byrne Live show reported communications as “functioning at a very high level”, but this was not reflective of the current affairs unit as a whole.

“Overall, it was felt that there was a silo effect within [current affairs] for communications, between the areas, and at times, within the areas.”

In a heavily redacted report which does not identify any individuals in the organisation, many staff reported a lack of clarity regarding promotional opportunities and a lack of career direction.

The process of “some appointments was deemed not to be transparent”, the audit said. “There was a belief expressed by several people that some roles were developed for a person already identified as opposed to being a truly open competition process.”

Women in the current affairs unit in particularly were “not perceived as having access to or having received the same number of opportunities as men”. It was commented that women “often left because of not feeling valued or respected”. Ms Maher noted this observation about a gender imbalance in terms of opportunities was made by both men and women.

“In the main, those who have joined in very recent years or who are younger and male, were far less likely to have any concerns or any awareness about issues in [current affairs] that might require management support or resolution in general,” she said. The younger male staff members “quite often would identify the gender aspect as a reason for them not having any issues”.

‘Disappointed’

Within Prime Time and RTÉ Investigates, the effectiveness of teamwork, particularly in relation to the pairing of a producer with a reporter was raised as a recurring issue, she said. “It was viewed as a somewhat systemic problem. Past difficulties in some pairings appear to have resulted in a situation where editors are unable to successfully get some people to work with each other again and therefore choices are limited or forced, leading to friction in some pairings.”

The lack of transparency over career opportunities had deterred staff from raising concerns, with a high proportion of staff reporting “a fear of consequence for speaking up on these matters”.

The “widespread expressions of distrust and significant unease about openly speaking about some of the issues noted are very concerning,” she said. “Equally, the very strongly expressed belief that corporate support would not truly be available to address these issues, or that nothing would change regardless of what is reported from this review, was striking.”

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said it was “very disappointed that it required the intervention of the Information Commissioner to release the Resolve Ireland report”. The report should have been shared with staff at the outset, “as RTÉ management should always uphold the standards of transparency we demand of others,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Its redacted publication has brought to light staff concerns staff about a working culture that has failed to address problems in communication, fairness in promotional opportunities, gender equality and the standards of dignity and respect that should be guaranteed to any worker,” the NUJ said.

“The report’s publication is particularly important given that these issues were brought to the attention of management by the NUJ repeatedly in recent years, in particular the failure to address gender equality within current affairs. The NUJ will be seeking a meeting with management to discuss the contents of the report and seek assurances on the implementation of its recommendations.”

RTÉ on Tuesday said it “accepted the conclusions and recommendations of the report in full”.

There had been “significant changes in TV current affairs in the past year, including the ongoing implementation of the report’s recommendations”, it added.