Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have consent as well.

He said:

In 2021 the department of social protection contacted me, asking to interview me on my employment

status. RTÉ never contacted me regarding this.

In 2022 I received a decision stating that I should have been an employee from the years 2012 - 2018. RTÉ have paid my PRSI for those years.

When trying to engage with the unions and RTÉ on this matter I feel like I am being totally ignored. I have emails dating back to 2022 with regards to asking SIPTU. I have engaged with RTÉ on this matter personally recently, RTÉ are refusing to acknowledge that [we] were staff at the time without actually giving a reasonable explanation as to why [we] are not staff instead they are using terms like "no assumptions can be made".

With regards to the procedures and processes relating to the misclassification of workers employment status and impacts thereof I want to show the process the staff members must go through in order to be heard by RTÉ.

On the real life impact on people's lives, people don't have homes, pensions. It has impacted people careers and their home life, these workers had to give up a lot personally (we usually had to work the shifts others didn't as they were entitled to take the time off, missing out on a lot of big family occasions like Christmas.)

It does take a [toll] on your mental health to have to deal with people [who] try to convince you that what you know to be true is not true.

We had a very public declaration from Keith Walsh, the former 2FM DJ, recently. He had hoped to be here and would have liked to have given his submission. He felt not being able to give his testimony to this committee was a trauma on top of trauma. Those were his words. That is something that must be recognised.

Another person, who wishes to remain anonymous, came to me:

They said:

I worked exclusively for RTÉ for almost 25 years. The contract ended with no entitlement to lump sum or pension. Two years later, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection began a review of the PRSI and employment status in RTÉ. Five months later the decision of the deciding officer from the Department of Social Protection was that the employment of the person by RTÉ for 25 years was insurable under the social welfare Acts for all benefits and pensions at PRSI class A.

Four months later, RTÉ appealed the decision through Arthur Cox solicitors. Then the Department of Social Protection, four months later, was awaiting full submission from RTÉ on that appeal.

The person wrote to the DG about this matter but has yet to receive a response. Three further months passed before the case was assigned to an appeals officer.

In another example, a person pointed out to management in RTÉ that they were working more days than staff and that they should be an employee. The person was refused. They went on to say:

For many reasons which I am unable to go into here due to environment and behaviour towards me at my place of work I did not appeal the WRC LRC recommendation. In 2022 and 2023 the employment status investigation unit, Scope, and social welfare appeals office deemed me to be an employee with PRSI status, class A. All this mental stress, physical illness and financial cost could have been avoided for both me and RTÉ back in 2008. I understand that RTÉ has paid my PRSI bill to the Department of Social Protection but I am still waiting for the payment of their pension benefits, holiday pay and other job entitlements for six and a half years. I was forced to be self-employed within the national broadcaster. I have received a solicitor’s letter from RTÉ stating that they will vigorously defend any proceedings and will affix me with the cost of such defence. Surely RTÉ would not have paid my PRSI bill if it did not admit liability. Surely RTÉ should spend its money paying individuals like me instead of clocking up a huge bill with one of the biggest law firms in the country. I currently understand that the legal cost is up to €74,000. The 6.5 years pension alone would mean that my future would be secure and that I would not have to work into old age. This is the only opportunity I have to describe my ordeal within the national broadcaster.

I have another submission from a group of workers.

They stated:

We are a cross-section of misclassified workers in RTÉ. We have each been identified more correctly as employees either through the RTÉ Eversheds reports or Scope or Revenue investigations. We have in total worked over a century of years for RTÉ with no employment benefits or protection to show for it. RTÉ tells the Oireachtas that RTÉ is working hard to remedy this but tells us that RTÉ will bring their PRSI contributions up-to-date over the course of the next 15 years but our service will not be backdated. We will not get retrospection of other lost benefits. RTÉ will only offer us one 12-month employment contract now without full statutory protections or benefits or regular staff benefits. If we do not accept this, we are told by HR: take it or leave RTÉ.

This is part of the problem; this culture of fear and threat.

They stated further:

If we get legal advice RTÉ hand our file to Arthur Cox. We do not know how RTÉ can publicly state at Oireachtas hearings that RTÉ have accepted the findings of both Eversheds reports but can then use public money to have Arthur Cox deny and argue against those findings in court. RTÉ is now instructing deliberate reductions in work for many of us. This can minimise our ability to pay for legal representation and limit the potential WRC award which is based on our earnings. We are being bullied with no recourse as we have no employment rights. We are let down by unions - SIPTU, in all of our cases - who allowed decades of bogus self-employment and who now seem unable to negotiate against HR or support individuals who bring complaints. Many of us have not even been allowed to see our individual Eversheds determinations. How can RTÉ say this is transparent?

After decades of loyal service, we are devastated by the sharp practice by HR and the inertia of SIPTU. As it stands, many of us with decades of service, will not be eligible under the voluntary redundancy scheme as we have no recognised service years. We are at risk instead of quietly disappearing from RTÉ at the end of one-year contracts currently offered with no pension, no redundancy. The contract offered explicitly excludes protections under unfair dismissal. SIPTU do not seem to be able to do anything. Making matters worse, we have lived with this since 2017. Worrying about how to pay our bills, how to deal with Revenue if they back-date tax. Working in a culture of fear in case we are simply disappeared. This so-called resolution process is expected now to drag on for a further 15 years, according to RTÉ, during which time many of us will have reached retirement with no pension or will have simply vanished from RTÉ when annual contracts are not renewed. The financial and psychological damage to us and our families is a disgrace to RTÉ when all we have done is our jobs. We did our jobs and did them well because if we did not, we would not have been renewed. We were only contractors. They employees in legal and HR were the ones who did not do their jobs, who made grave and sustained mistakes. We are the ones paying for their mistakes and they are bullying us so they can get away with it.

It is important that all those voices are heard. That is only a small sample of the voices that needed to be heard that I would have liked to have had sitting before us today but for one reason or another they were not allowed to be here. Those people have to be heard. The unions have to do more to represent them. I know they have a difficult job but these people cannot be forgotten either. Neither can they be forgotten by Members of the Oireachtas. They have to be protected and their rights have to be fought for.

A number of questions were brought to my attention. They were posted by Martin McMahon on Twitter at the weekend. They are pertinent questions. If there is not time to answer them now, it would be helpful for the unions-----