Ms Teresa Hannick:

The Senator asked about balloting. For many of these cases, we are talking about equal pay and how the Equality Act would cover them. The difficulty we have with some of the equal pay cases is when it is an individual contract, which can happen with some on-screen positions. It is much easier to bring an individual employment case for a member for equal pay when we have a grading structure and a pay scale like that which exists for some of the more operational roles. As we explained here previously, under these kinds of individual cases, there are also the limitations of the Industrial Relations Act 1990, where people would do some industrial action, as was talked about, but it is classed as a trade dispute. I would find myself involved in some of the more public sector ones because they are very strictly graded but even as you talk, people are very strict to hold onto it and do not do it when there is a difficulty. As Ms O’Kelly outlined and what we have found is that when people join and come in on a temporary contract, they are concerned about getting future employment and do not want to rock the boat. Much of what we can hear in the TUG is people have been there for a few years and are concerned. I have been in a situation where people do not want to talk on the media about what it is like to work in RTÉ.