An increasing number of journalists throughout the country find themselves working as surrogate staff while their employers refuse to give them staff entitlements, the Irish general secretary of the National Union of Journalists claimed yesterday.
Mr Eoin Ronayne was giving evidence in an employment appeals hearing in which a Cork journalist, Ms Ann Mooney, claimed she was unfairly dismissed by Examiner Publications Cork Ltd after 23 years working for their newspapers.
The company claims Ms Mooney was never a member of staff and produced an application for a job she submitted in 1989 where she stated she was freelance and worked for a number of other publications.
The company also said she paid her own income tax and was content to take the tax breaks of being a sub contractor.
"We have many people described as permanent freelances who are directly under the control of the news desk and are expected to turn up to work each day. Over a period of time they evolve into defacto staff members even though the employer does not recognise that," Mr Ronanyne told the tribunal.
Giving evidence, Ms Mooney, from Rochestown, Co Cork, told the tribunal she had worked for the Examiner since 1973, and from late 1992 until she was sacked in May 1996, she was their court reporter. This position had always been held by staff journalists.
Ms Mooney said she was paid at first weekly and later monthly when she presented her bill to accounts while freelance journalists had to wait up to 60 days for their payment.
In 1995 she earned about £40,000 for the year, of which about £39,000 came from the Examiner with the rest from other media she worked for occasionally. She said she had slightly exaggerated the amount of work she did for other newspapers in her job application.
Mr Fergus Long, solicitor for the Examiner group, said he had a list 10 pages long of articles she had published in the Sunday World.
"This is wholly and totally inconsistent with a staff job with the Examiner," he said.
The hearing resumes this morning.