Mr. Michael O'Brien:

Unite the Union represents craft workers in RTÉ and is part of the trade union group. I am here deputising for my colleague, Brendan Byrne, who was unavailable to attend this evening. He has appeared before previous committees on previous occasions. I will begin by endorsing the comments made by my fellow union representatives. In the short time I have, I will focus on our principal concern with the Bill, which is the provision that RTÉ spends not less than the equivalent of 25% of its public funding on independent productions and, within that context, the conditions of work for craft workers employed by independent producers, not to mention the possibility of displacement of work currently taking place in RTÉ.

It is, sadly, often the case that smaller independent companies will other short-term contracts, precarious employment arrangements, lower pay and often misclassify workers as self-employed. Bogus self-employment, like other forms of precarious work, impacts on workers, compliant employers in the sector and the wider economy. It embeds inequality into the workplace. It limits workers’ access to benefits such as pensions, holiday pay and sick pay, and they enjoy fewer protections against unfair dismissal or discrimination in the workplace. Workers in these situations also lack the basic protections of minimum hours of rest and breaks provided for in the Organisation of Working Time Act.

Employers who misclassify workers as self-employed or who engage in other forms of precarious employment have an unfair competitive advantage over other employers. The non-payment of employer’s PRSI not only reduces the money available to the Social Insurance Fund but also reduces individual workers’ social welfare entitlements. One presumes that the provision of funding by RTÉ to independent producers is preceded by some class of competitive tendering process or application process. Independent producers, feeling those competitive pressures, will inevitably seek to promise to deliver the biggest bang for their buck, but how do such promises translate for the workers?

We have seen in other sectors, particularly in construction, where Unite has a significant footprint, where a culture of overpromising for public contracts by private firms gets us. Built into bids we have seen in those sectors was remuneration based on bogus self-employment because the bids could not be made on the basis of paying unionised rates based on direct employment.

I was speaking in the context of craft workers where there is a strong tradition of registered employment agreements and unionised rates that we seek to protect and employers often seek to circumnavigate using the methods I described. The question is how RTÉ will respond if it is shown that some potential independent production companies are anti-union or do not respect the conciliation services of the WRC or the Labour Court. Unfortunately, these scenarios have not inhibited other State bodies from doing business with rogue employers and independent producers.

In summary, we ask the committee, during the pre-legislative scrutiny of the broadcasting Bill, to take on board our concerns regarding employment practices of third parties and that the most robust systems of scrutiny and oversight are put in place to ensure the rights of all workers engaged in public broadcasting are respected and protected.