RTÉ unions agree pay cuts

RTÉ union members have agreed to take voluntary pay cuts to help deal with a financial crisis at the station.

Staff voted by a margin of 57.4 per cent to 43.3 per cent to accept pay cuts of between 2.6 per cent and 12.5 per cent.

Management insisted that the pay cuts are necessary to deal with a €68 million fall-off in advertising revenue this year.

About half of RTÉ staff are unionised and nearly all staff involved in either the NUJ or SIPTU voted in the ballot. The final result was 633 for and 484 against.

RTÉ director-general Cathal Goan thanked staff for agreeing to the cuts.

He said the resulted showed them “very clearly demonstrating a sense of responsibility both to themselves and to the Irish public on whose behalf we all work”.

In a circular to staff this afternoon, he said that the measures were both “fair and necessary” given that 2009 will be a difficult year both for those within the organisation and for licence fee payers.

The cuts are voluntary and will be made in the next pay packet. Management will be approaching each member of staff to persuade them to accept the cuts.

The pay cuts were the subject of negotiation between management and the Trade Union Group (TUG) in RTÉ.

TUG secretary Mary Curtin said the results reflect the realisation among staff about the financial crisis facing the organisation.

However, she warned that management should take into account the strong no vote which was as a result of anger at levels of executive pay and remuneration and the “extravagant” bonus system in place at RTÉ.

Ms Curtin said the TUG will be revisiting the issues of executive pay once they have reflected on the yes vote.

“The Authority and the Executive Board need to reflect on the low morale among staff and take immediate measures to restore confidence in the organisation,” she said.

NUJ Irish secretary Seamus Dooley said RTÉ management need to take heed of the strong vote and “not take the yes vote for granted”.

“Over the last fortnight it has become abundantly clear that there is a morale problem throughout the organisation. Even those who voted yes did so reluctantly because of concern at the level of executive pay. Those issues will have to be addressed by the RTÉ Authority and the executive board.”