RTÉ journalists have said they are “hugely angered” and “devastated” at the undermining of public trust and good will caused by the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal.
Staff at the broadcaster who are members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) held a lengthy emergency meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss the revelations RTÉ had for several years declared misleading pay for the star presenter.
RTÉ on Thursday revealed Mr Tubridy received €345,000 in hidden payments between 2017 and the start of this year. The money was never disclosed in annual pay statements that suggested Mr Tubridy, the station’s highest earner, took a bigger pay cut than was actually the case as the broadcaster set out to reduce costs in 2020.
Chair of NUJ Dublin broadcasting branch, RTÉ education correspondent Emma O’Kelly said the meeting was the largest held in recent memory at the broadcaster and staff spoke of how “devastated, ashamed, betrayed and angered” they were.
‘’Our members have worked extremely hard to earn and maintain the trust of the Irish public. That trust is something we value and respect hugely,” she said.
“They are devastated to see the hard-earned goodwill of the public undermined as a result of this scandal. We will continue to do our jobs to the best of our ability, and that includes holding RTÉ to the same standards that the public expects of any publicly-funded body. We demand that our viewers and listeners are treated with respect, and we want that respect extended also to staff at RTÉ.’’
The journalists were particularly angry and dismayed at the failure of RTÉ executive board to address the grave concerns of staff and the decision by management to refuse all media interviews.
“RTÉ should be a model of best practice in regard to employment, corporate governance, industrial relations and public procurement. The concept of secret third-party contracts and special arrangements is incompatible with the concept of public service broadcasting.”
The members passed a resolution calling on the executive board to make themselves available to RTÉ programmes and other media to address the “very many questions” that need answering.
“We want to know who signed off on these secret payments and who knew about them. We want those responsible to be held to account. We welcome the new announcement of an independent enquiry. We want its scope to be broadened to include wider issues relating to remuneration, including pensions and perks,” staff said in a statement.
“We also want an end to what members see as a culture of secrecy surrounding pay, pensions and perks at the organisation. We want an independent examination of RTÉ's use of third-party agents acting on behalf of a select group and the appropriateness of such relationships in a public broadcasting organisation.”
NUJ general secretary Seamus Dooley invoked “GUBU”, the phase associated with the political scandal surrounding the case of double murderer Malcolm MacArthur in 1982, to describe the situation at Montrose. “This is GUBU stuff – grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, and unprecedented in scale.”
RTÉ staff were “rightly angry” and felt “betrayed”, he said.
The revelations had caused “upset, anger and resentment” right across the organisation.
He described the delay in announcing the suspension of RTÉ director general Dee Forbes as “industrial relations striptease” which added to the upset of workers.
“Yesterday’s comprehensive statement from the board was an honest attempt at placing information on the public record. I struggle to understand why the suspension of the director general on Wednesday was not announced at the same time. This form of drip-drip announcements, a sort of industrial relations striptease, does nothing to reassure RTÉ employees.”
He said he was mindful of the need for “due process and the rights of individuals in this process” and he looked forward to the investigation by accountants Grant Thornton into the matter.
Mr Dooley also criticised the use of “third-party contracts” for presenters and journalists.
“The NUJ strongly believes that Ireland’s public service broadcaster should be a model of best practice in regard to employment, corporate governance and public procurement. The notion of third-party contracts and special arrangements does not sit easily with the concept of public service broadcasting.”
He said he had represented RTÉ workers in pay negotiations while a “parallel process of negotiations with a third party was undertaken by RTÉ. That process and the arrangements entered into led to a deception of staff, the public and the Government.
“While no illegality may have occurred, I believe that the review being undertaken by Grant Thornton should only be the beginning of a corporate governance review which examines in forensic detail the third-party arrangements and whether they are appropriate for RTÉ.”
