Fair City star Tony Tormey has demanded RTE boss Dee Forbes be called to give evidence in his employment claim against the broadcaster.
The actor, who has played Paul Brennan in the TV soap since it launched in 1989, claims he is entitled to an open-ended contract. But RTE says Mr Tormey, who earns €4,500 a week, was always happy to be a self-employed contractor.
His case under the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 heard legal submissions yesterday before the Workplace Relations Commission. Conor Bowman SC, who appeared for Mr Tormey, said his client became entitled to a contract of indefinite duration “by operation of law” in 2004, when the act came into force.
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He said his client had already been on a series of “rollover” contracts dating back to 1989.
Adjudicating officer Breiffni O’Neill put it to counsel that if he was to award a contract of indefinite duration, it was not clear what terms and conditions of employment might apply to it. He said these must have changed over the course of an engagement spanning several decades.
Mr Bowman said his client’s terms “haven’t changed at all” and that the only change was a fall in the amount of work offered by RTE during the pandemic.
The tribunal was told Mr Tormey worked an average of 31 filming weeks a year and was earning €4,500 per week when he lodged his complaint papers. Mairead McKenna SC, appearing for RTE, said: “Mr Tormey himself declared himself an independent contractor.”
She said Mr Tormey’s earnings had varied year-to-year – from €150,000 in 2016 to €99,000 the following year.
Ms McKenna said references to a Revenue audit sent by Mr Tormey’s solicitors indicated “very significant earnings and a very significant income tax liability” over a two-year period. She said RTE wanted the full details of the audit to “get under the bonnet” and examine “other earnings that we believe Mr Tormey was engaged in”.
The complainant’s barrister replied: “Yes, I accept that about the Revenue audits. By the same token, we say, RTE were aware of his status and mischaracterised him as self-employed.”
Mr Bowman said the broadcaster was aware his client had a claim to a contract of indefinite duration at least as early as 2017. This is when it received a report prepared by consultants Eversheds on the employment status of a group of workers being treated as contractors which included the Fair City actors. Mr Bowman added: “Ms McKenna has said he was ‘happy’ to classify himself as an independent contractor.
“It’s not about happiness, it’s about the law.” He said he was seeking a witness summons for the broadcaster’s director-general, Dee Forbes, to give evidence.
Ms McKenna said a summons for Ms Forbes was “completely unnecessary and inflammatory”. She said before the case could proceed further there would have to be an issue paper drafted and a case management conference in order to determine the scope of the matter, the period in dispute and the status Mr Tormey was claiming at the relevant times.
The adjudicator adjourned the matter for a case management conference and the drafting of an issue paper.
A spokesperson for RTE said: “We have no comment to make.” Mr Tormey is understood to be one of three soap veterans pursuing similar claims before the tribunal – the others are George McMahon, who plays Mondo O’Connell, and Jim Bartley, alias Bela Doyle.
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