Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I will touch on four areas. I welcome the witnesses. Obviously, it is a good opportunity to address some of these issues. I will start with the misclassification of staff. We know there is a power differential between employee and employer, that SIPTU and the NUJ were very active on this for a very long time and that it went on for far too long. Due to people's employment status being misclassified, there will be an obligation to pay both employer and employee PRSI contributions. Certain people will have lost out badly on things like pensions and maternity leave and there may be liabilities and other actions taken as a consequence of that. I know this is not the first time this type of issue has arisen in RTÉ. It happened in the late 1980s. Where will the accountability rest? Will that be factored into this? We know that about 80 people have seen their employment status change. Why is there no commitment to dealing with issues other than Revenue and PRSI issues? Why would this not be automatic when these employees were treated this way? Where is the accountability regarding the person or people who decided that this was the employment status that would be offered to these people without understanding that this was really bogus self-employment?