RTÉ redundancy plan to cut 70 jobs and save €5m a year

RTÉ HAS announced a voluntary severance package to cut at least 70 jobs which would save the broadcaster €5 million a year.

The State broadcaster is confident the package, which it describes as “fair, prudent and realistic”, will meet the redundancy targets that it needs to break even by 2013.

The redundancies will bring the number of RTÉ staff down to less than 2,000. It was more than 2,300 at the height of the boom.

The figure of 70 is a minimum one and management in RTÉ will accept more redundancies if the uptake is in excess of that.

The redundancies will be sought across the organisation and only vital staff that cannot be replaced will be exempt.

The package will allow staff to claim six weeks per year of service up to a maximum of 130 weeks (2½ years).

It is particularly tailored to those coming up to retirement.

Those over 55 will receive an ex-gratia lump sum of up to €60,000 depending on age.

Both the redundancy and retirement schemes will be calculated on the basis of the salary that applied prior to pay cuts being introduced in June 2009.

Employees covered by the defined contribution pension scheme will also be entitled to statutory redundancy. The offer is open to staff only until September 16th and it will cost €10 million upfront.

RTÉ examined the terms and conditions of redundancies in the commercial semi-State sector and the public sector generally before making its offer.

In an opinion piece written for this newspaper 10 days ago, RTÉ director-general Noel Curran said the organisation had hoped to break even this year after making €82 million in cuts since its revenues were severely undercut by a collapse in advertising revenues since 2008.

However, he said changes in the budget cost RTÉ another €20 million and have forced the organisation to make further cuts.

Mr Curran has already announced that some of RTÉ’s highest-paid stars will have to take pay cuts of 30 per cent between now and 2013.

RTÉ is also looking at its divisional system where sectors such as television and radio have their own administration, human resources and publicity departments.

A statement from RTÉ said they believed they had correctly balanced the need to have an attractive package without it being overgenerous.

NUJ Irish secretary Seamus Dooley said he anticipated a “high level of interest” because the terms were attractive to those with long service. “The general reaction has been to date that the terms are quite good in the current circumstances.”