RTÉ’s director General Cathal Goan has stated that the broadcaster is facing a €68 million shortfall or 15% loss in the total amount of revenue for 2009 which is to result in staff cost cutting measures.
According to the broadcasters website, RTE.ie, Mr Goan addressed the shortfall in a letter to all staff which specified that a proposed saving of €10 million must come from personnel-related costs including staff pay cuts, reduction of travel expensives, freelance and overtime rates.
Pay cuts are to be determined based on the scale of earnings.
In avoiding a deficit for the company, Mr Goan said the cutbacks would go towards saving a further €41 million to cope with a drop in advertising revenue.
Last autumn the broadcaster announced the implementation of pay freezes, the non replacement of staff and foreign travel expenses which would cutback on €27 million.
The RTÉ Trade Union Group was made aware of the cuts on Wednesday and that the proposals would be the subject of discussions over the next two weeks ahead of a meeting with management. The also stated that any changes to current agreements would go through the usual industrial relations processes.
