RTÉ management and unions will attend the Labour Court later today in a bid to resolve a dispute on pension schemes.
In a recent ballot involving all trade union members at the station, more than 85 per cent voted in favour of action up to a work stoppage, in pursuit of an improved pension scheme for staff taken on since 1990.
Traditionally, RTÉ staff were part of a defined benefit pension scheme, but that scheme was closed off to new entrants around 1990. Employees joining RTÉ since then have entered a defined contribution scheme, which has no guarantee of a final pension amount on retirement.
Some 600 staff employed prior to 1989 are on a civil service defined benefit scheme, but 1,200 staff employed after then are on the less lucrative defined contribution scheme, which entails a risk to the contributor's pension depending on stock market fluctuations.
The unions want RTÉ to carry some of the risk arising from stock price changes by guaranteeing part of of the contributor's entitlement.