Broadcaster Colm Ó Mongáin has told a tribunal he overheard an RTÉ manager direct a supervisor not to give shift work to a video editor after she made a formal request for more secure working conditions.
The journalist was giving evidence today on a series of employment rights complaints brought by his colleague Maebh Keary di Lucia – who claims RTÉ has left her short by nearly €360,000 because she was “misclassified” as a contractor at the start of her career at the national broadcaster.
Ms Keary di Lucia told the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Monday that she stopped pushing for more job security after Mr Ó Mongáin came to her and told her what he had overheard in 2008.
She is seeking just short of €360,000 in multiple employment rights claims against the State broadcaster under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 and the Terms of Employment Information Act 1994.
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She claims she was denied pay-related statutory entitlements and annual leave between 2004 to 2011, when she was working shifts as a newsroom video editor while “misclassified” as an independent contractor.
She has further alleged that because her contract of employment “incorrectly” states that she started work there in 2011, her service is not recognised, her advancement on the pay scale for her grade was delayed, and she has been denied a long-service allowance since summer 2024.
RTÉ’s lawyers say the WRC has no jurisdiction to rule on the case due to time limits in the Workplace Relations Act.
[ RTÉ pays out €4m tied to misclassification of some staff as self-employedOpens in new window ]
At a hearing on Monday, Mr Ó Mongáin said he worked regularly with Ms Keary di Lucia in 2008, as both had been involved in the production of RTÉ’s current affairs programme for children News2Day and other projects.
He told the commission that in May 2008 he overheard a conversation in the corridor of the RTÉ newsroom between a manager in charge of camera operators and video editors, and a senior video editor in the department who was responsible for rostering.
“I heard [the manager] tell [the senior editor] that he should only use Maebh as a last resort until this thing had blown over. I was surprised by that because Maebh was very much a go-to video editor,” Mr Ó Mongáin said.
He said he thought it unusual that Ms di Lucia would not be assigned “plenty of shifts” and decided to inform her.
He said Ms di Lucia and her Siptu trade union representative, Ruth Delaney, then asked him to make a note of what he had overheard and to give evidence if he was asked to, and he agreed.
“I was never ultimately called to anything until today and I suppose my original commitment that I would be happy to stand over that remains today so that’s why I’m here today,” he said.
“Do you remember what reaction I had?” Ms di Lucia asked.
“As far as I remember you were upset and disturbed by it. It seemed to be something you found stressful. When I say upset, a combination of upset and annoyed would be how I’d judge your reaction,” Mr Ó Mongáin said.
Asked by RTÉ’s solicitor, Louise O’Byrne of Arthur Cox, what he knew of Ms di Lucia’s complaint to the WRC, Mr Ó Mongáin said he was “not familiar with the detail” of the dispute.
“I would be conscious that she’s raised issues around contracts and what’s broadly known as bogus self-employment at public meetings at RTÉ and when it’s come for discussion at management forums but I’m not across the details of her case,” he said.
The complainant told the tribunal that she had written formally to her manager making a request for “more secure working conditions” in February 2007.
The matter was referred to the Labour Relations Commission in 2008, she said. “They said it wasn’t in their jurisdiction, and they took a sidestep,” she added.
Asked by adjudicator Christina Ryan whether she had made further requests about her working conditions, Ms Keary di Lucia said: “I didn’t, because of the evidence Colm Ó Mongáin gave. I became very stressed and my hair began to fall out. I felt I could not pursue the issue,” she said.
The dispute follows determinations by the Department of Social Protection’s scope section, the Social Welfare Appeals Office and the Revenue Commissioners that despite being paid via invoice, Ms Keary di Lucia had been an employee prior to receiving a contract of employment in 2011.
Ms Keary di Lucia said that in response to “consistent findings” of “misclassification”, RTÉ had “solely paid PRSI”.
“They’ve paid the State, but they have not repaid me,” she said.
Ms Keary di Lucia has argued that she is being denied her rights under European Union directives requiring the WRC to set the time limits aside, and that she is suffering ongoing rights breaches due to the statement in her contract of employment giving her a 2011 start date.
