Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for providing a breakdown of the various statutory bodies that make determinations on the employment status of a person for the purpose of PRSI, but this situation involves workers with nearly 20 years of service who are being told that they have no pension rights, will not be allowed into the staff pension scheme and so on.

I received a message from one of the workers today, who said that there had been a meeting with SIPTU and that the feedback was that RTÉ was unwilling to move the acceptance date of tomorrow or to look at pensions, and that it was a case of take it or leave it. The workers' understanding is that RTÉ has engaged a top legal firm to deal with any case they may bring and seems willing to spend money fighting their entitlement to pensions as opposed to addressing their pension issues. SIPTU stated that it had not agreed this offer and that RTÉ had refused to engage with it on the matter, which is confusing for the workers if SIPTU has not negotiated any part of the offer.

Employment legislation in this country is weak. According to these workers, RTÉ as an employer is not negotiating with the unions involved - SIPTU, the NUJ, etc. These workers could be facing a difficult situation tomorrow and afterwards. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment should intervene and demand that the director of RTÉ meet the Government. People depend on their pensions. These workers were working with RTÉ illegally, given that they were in bogus self-employment and there was a misclassification of their employment status.

The fact they have been deemed not to have been in bogus self-employment means RTÉ knew it should have been employing these workers directly, not through a bogus self-employment contract. Will the Minister of State, Deputy English, meet with the director of RTÉ to discuss this and give some explanation as to why these workers are not being given their pension rights?

See this speech in context