‘Extraordinary sense of entitlement’, RTÉ journalist loses extra pay claim appeal

Gordon Deegan

An RTÉ journalist described as someone with an "extraordinary sense of entitlement and a huge sense of self-importance” has failed in his bid to be reclassified at a higher grade and secure additional compensation for his work on a project.

It follows the Labour Court upholding a recommendation by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) made last year, which dismissed the multi-media journalist’s (MMJ's) two claims under the Industrial Relations Act.

In his WRC ruling in January 2025, Adjudicator Breiffni O’Neill recommended that the worker carefully reflect on his analysis and accept that he has been compensated more than appropriately in respect of the project on which he was engaged and that he is employed at the appropriate grade, in respect of which he is also well compensated.

O'Neill wrote: "It is clear that the worker in the instant dispute has an extraordinary sense of entitlement and a huge sense of self-importance both in respect of the work he did on the project and the work he does as a multimedia journalist.”

Mr O'Neill wrote that RTÉ's move to incur a cost of €100,000, making certain allowances pensionable, meant the journalist was "more than adequately compensated for his work on the project".

However, the worker appealed Mr O’Neill’s ruling to the Labour Court, and as part of his appeal, he provided the court with a detailed submission running to 25 pages and 164 paragraphs.

The worker, who is not named, earned a total of some €84,630 a year as a multimedia journalist at the time of the WRC hearing. That figure included an additional allowance for duties as chief sub-editor.

The journalist claimed that he is entitled to additional compensation for a project he was engaged in between 2010 and 2012 known as the CND project, and that his current grade of multi-media journalist does not reflect the work he is currently doing and he should be re-classified to a higher grade of newscaster.

However, in the court’s findings following a hearing on April 10th, Labour Court chairwoman, Ms Louise O’Donnell, referred to the 10 years to 2022 it took for the journalist to seek additional compensation for the CND project.

Ms O’Donnell stated that in circumstances where it took the worker 10 years after the event to raise an issue, “this does not in the Court’s view meet the criteria of a dispute requiring the Court’s input”.

She stated: “However, in the interest of clarity, the court decides that it finds no merit in this claim.”

In relation to the journalist’s second claim for re-grading, he was seeking to be paid on the Newscaster grade as he has been carrying out duties that would warrant the same since 2018.

In respect of what Ms O’Donnell described as the worker’s defacto re-grading claim, Ms O’Donnell said that the worker had the support of his trade union while processing his claim through the internal grievance procedure and other than not agreeing with the outcome, the worker raised no issue with the process followed.

Ms O’Donnell said that the court noted RTÉ’s position that 'Newscaster' roles are advertised and competed for and that the skill set required is different to that of a radio news reader.

She stated that it was therefore open to the worker to compete for such a post if he wished.

She said: “Talking all of the above into account, the court does not recommend concession of this claim.”

In response to the employee’s re-grading claim, RTÉ stated that he is on the correct grade of MMJ and in line with that grade and his other colleagues on that grade, he receives an ‘Extra Hours Liability Allowance’ of €1,053 per annum.

RTÉ stated that the MMJ is also in receipt of a Long Service Increment allowance, a Special Responsibility allowance and an 'Additional Responsibility' allowance totalling €9,459 per annum.

RTÉ stated that the worker first raised these issues with it in July 2022, at which point one of his complaints was 10 years old.