The RTÉ Trade Union Group (TUG) will write to the Oireachtas Committee on Media to outline staff’s significant concerns at elements of the organisations’s new five-year strategy.
RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst last week outlined to staff details of the broadaster’s plan, called ‘A New Direction’, which is to guide RTÉ for the next five years, with a firm emphasis on focussing on the digital era for public service media.
The document caused some shockwaves amongst staff as it included proposals of outsourcing programmes such as The Late Late Show and Fair City, moving them off site and potentially offering them for commissioning from Independent sector production companies.
This evening, representatives from RTÉ will appear in front of the Joint Committee on Media at Leinster House.
Committee chair Niamh Smyth has said that she was looking forward to hearing from RTÉ to hear more details about the implementations being made to ensure the highest standards of governance, policy, expenditure and administration being practiced at the broadcaster.
The discussions will centre on the recommendation reports into RTÉ and the implementation plan which was published recently.
It is expected that staff concerns about these proposals will be raised by the committee during discussions.
Emma O’Kelly, Joint Chair of the RTÉ TUG said that at a TUG meeting this afternoon, there was a lot of discussion with staff expressing anger and disappointment with the strategy.
She told RTÉ’s Drivetime: “We felt an urgent need to communicate with the Oireachtas Committee on Media.
“Staff felt it was really important that politicians are very clear as to the views of ordinary workers in RTÉ.”
Ms O’Kelly said that people were dismayed and described last week was a “watershed moment”.
She added that staff were most concerned about privatisation and outsourcing, and have fears around both their jobs and the future of public service media.
She said that staff were also concerned that the Government is not on the side of staff, when this was the case last summer.
Ms O’Kelly added: “Now is the time if you’re a politician and you value public service media, now we really need you in our camp because of the very future of public service broadcasting in this country, and that is a very serious thing for the public.”
Speaking on the same programme, Sinn Féin TD Mairéad Farrell said it was important to listen to the ordinary workers in RTÉ and take it from there.
