Cash-strapped RTÉ is planning to spend €1.5 million on gift vouchers for its employees over the next two years.
The national broadcaster is currently engaged in a massive cost-cutting plan, aiming to reduce its spending by €60 million over a three-year period due to concerns about its financial position.
However, it will still find money to treat its staff to vouchers and gift cards to the value of around €1.5 million excluding VAT in 2023 and 2024, newly-published tender documents reveal.
RTÉ expects to award a contract for the supply of vouchers at the end of next month following a competitive tendering process. The value of individual gift cards is unknown, but tender documents mention denominations of up to €1,000.
“The amount issued on the gift card will not be the same for each employee,” the documents state, adding that staff members are not guaranteed vouchers. Around 1,800 are expected to receive gift cards next year, and the same number in 2024.
It is “important” that the gift cards should be usable across a wide range of sectors given the “diverse nature of the recipients”, according to the tender.
Earlier this year, RTÉ published figures showing that the number of staff members earning over €100,000 had increased to 119 in 2021, including 22 employees who were paid between €150,000 and €250,000.
The figures do not include top earners like Ryan Tubridy, Joe Duffy and Ray D’Arcy, who are independent contractors paid through their own limited companies.
A spokesman for the national broadcaster said the gift vouchers are part of an agreement reached with trade unions under the auspices of the Industrial Relations Tribunal (IRT).
“The agreement reached seeks to achieve a fair balance – recognising the pay restraint in RTÉ since 2008 and being responsive now to the impact of substantial cost-of-living increases on RTÉ staff and their families – while at the same time acknowledging RTÉ’s own financial position…
“As part of the agreement, a non-taxable voucher of up to €1,000 will issue in early 2023 and a further voucher of €500 will issue in January 2024.
These vouchers are aimed at RTÉ employees who worked in RTÉ during 2022 and who are in employment with RTÉ on 31/12/2022,” he said, adding that the proposal has gone to ballot.
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