A former London correspondent for RTE was forced to use cafe restrooms to record her voice for TV and radio packages after the broadcaster closed its offices in the English capital.
Veteran journalist Fiona Mitchell, who stayed in the UK from 2015 to 2019, used restaurants across the city to work, reports The Mirror.
But this week it emerged that the station was spending thousands of euros on memberships at London’s Soho House, which is for members only.
Emma O Kelly, chair of NUJ Broadcasting, condemned the revelations and said: “We are hearing about RTE paying for the use of a private members club in London. Meanwhile, RTE’s former London Correspondent Fiona Mitchell was forced to use cafes around that city as an office to report on Brexit because RTE had given up its office in London,” reports The Mirror.
Meanwhile, the NUJ secretary said the decision not to cut Ryan Tubridy’s pay when other staff were cut was a “apartheid system” at RTE.
Seamus Dooley has blasted the broadcaster and Director General Dee Forbes after it was revealed he was promised in writing that his earnings would stay the same until at least 2025.
Speaking yesterday, Mr. Dooley said: “There are concerns about the release of a letter that Dee Forbes sent to Ryan Tubridy where she guaranteed him that his pay would not be cut. To put that into perspective that letter was sent six months after RTE unilaterally froze increments which affected some of the lower-paid workers and six months before the imposition of pay cuts. I sat across the table from the then-director general and she told me that everybody was being treated equally. All the time, one person had got a letter of comfort saying whatever else happens your pay won’t be cut,” reports The Mirror.
He continued: “That in anyone’s language is not fair, it is unreasonable and I’m in no doubt that everybody will be as angry about that as am I cause it actually speaks to an ‘apartheid system’ where some people can be treated differently to others. There are many workers in RTE who are badly paid,” reports The Mirror.
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