RTE’S former London Correspondent was forced to use cafe toilets to record her voice for TV and radio packages after the broadcaster closed its office in the English capital.
Veteran journalist Fiona Mitchell, who was based in the UK between 2015 and 2019, used eateries around the city to work. But it emerged earlier today, the station has been forking out thousands of euro for membership at the exclusive members-only Soho House in London.
NUJ Broadcasting Branch Chair Emma O Kelly slammed the revelation 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.
“Fiona was forced to use toilet facilities in cafes as a quiet space to record her voice for TV and radio reports.” Meanwhile, the secretary of the NUJ has said the decision not to cut Ryan Tubridy’s pay while other employees had their salaries slashed showed there was an “apartheid system” within RTE.
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Seamus Dooley blasted the broadcaster and former Director General Dee Forbes after it emerged he was promised in writing that his wage would remain 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.
“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.”
He continued: “There are many workers in RTE who are badly paid.” The letter was included in a series of documents submitted to TDs on Tuesday night ahead of RTE’s Oireachtas Media Committee appearance yesterday.
The letter written by the former director general said: “The purpose of this correspondence is to record in writing our guarantee and undertaking that the fees set out in this Agreement will be paid by RTE without any reductions and RTE shall not make any request or enquiry from you in relation to a reduction in the agreed fees during the currency of the Agreement save as to those that might be imposed by changes to legislation.”
Ms O Kelly added: “We share the disgust of the public. It is galling in the extreme for ordinary RTE staff to hear that during this tough period for us, the company was reassuring its most highly paid presenter that his pay would not be cut.”
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