Liveline: Thread with no name, Host with no shame

Brian, you asked when we discussed this previously. Here's one example; and though in the Tubs thread it features our Joe so to speak.

A few posts further down - from me to you:

Oh Jesus, not this again.

He pays f*ck all Brian as he's outsourced his "services" via a company instead of being a PAYE Employee of RTE. So on his fees he pays corporation tax @ 12.5% after deductible expenses (of which there are many).

He's not doing anything illegal, he's simply taking advantage of a system which wasn't set up to monitor this type of practice and was designed for large companies and not "1 man bands", which his company is. This type of avoidance has recieved much criticism from many quarters.

What is galling however is that this behaviour is not morally acceptable to many, but given the man's constant protrayal of himself as a "Man of de peeple" and the fact he proclaims his heroes as Larkin, Connolly et al., it is at best profoundly hypocritical of him to do so.

That's the VERY short version.

As you well know Brian the rate at which he tax buys his groceries is not the rate at which the one man company he operates for the faciliation of the payment of his fees makes its returns. Once again you're acting like this copamny was set up as a way to pay MORE tax. Tubs/Duffy/D'Arcy et al are all essentially employees in RTE, but paid as contractors for the same output.

See:

The debate as to who is an employee and who is not has been ongoing for decades. However, we have a timely reminder of the significance of these issues – highlighted very recently in the case of RTÉ. An independent review found that out of a total of 433 contracts reviewed, up to 157 workers in RTÉ were wrongly classified as independent contractors.

From:

https://www.philiplee.ie/when-contract-work-is-employment-in-disguise/

and:

https://www.thejournal.ie/rte-freelancer-contracts-4087409-Jun2018/

Mr. Duffy of course fails to understand the basics of his own contract, demanding sick pay when he was unavilable for work:

Duffy’s 2011 autobiography revealed his "insecurity and worry" at being told by RTE he was not entitled to sick pay as he is not directly employed by the station but is a contractor.

The Liveline presenter was informed of the development prior to undergoing a second operation on a severely broken leg.

He wrote: “In my 23 years in RTE, I only took one single day off sick prior to being knocked down, so I thought the decision to refuse me sick pay was unfair, to say the least.”

Here are some Revenue Guidelines as to what determines if someone is an employee, rather than a contractor:

He/she is an employee if some or all of the following apply:

Is under the control of another person who directs as to how, when and where the work is to be carried out

Works set hours or a given number of hours per week or month

Does not supply materials for the job

Does not provide equipment other than the small tools of the trade

Is not exposed to personal financial risk in carrying out the work

Receives a fixed hourly/weekly/monthly wage

Is entitled to extra pay or time off for overtime

Is entitled to sick pay

Receives expense payments to cover subsistence and/or travel expenses

Supplies labour only

Cannot subcontact the work

Does not assume any responsibility for investment and management in the business

Does not have the opportunity to profit from sound management in the scheduling of engagements or in the performance of tasks arising from the engagements

Will normally be covered under the employer’s public liability insurance

Works for one person or for one business

https://www.herald.ie/opinion/columnists/sinead-ryan/sinead-ryan-rte-reporting-on-outrageous-paid-holidays-at-taxpayers-expense-mr-pot-meet-mr-kettle-27977206.html

Even RTE staff are fed up with the arrangements for the "stars":

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/a-terrible-betrayal-rte-top-earners-furious-after-colleagues-call-for-them-to-take-pay-cut-38733699.html

https://www.herald.ie/news/rtes-crazy-pay-packets-did-huge-damage-in-crash-davin-power-38675531.html

Quote from that last piece:

"People say the star salaries are irrelevant, but they're indicative of a management that went a bit crazy for a decade and those pay packets did huge damage to the station's standing with the public during the years of the crash," he said.

If I had more time I'd look for the article from a number of years back describing how Revenue planned to look at the one-man band type companies that are esentially fronts for these contractors-as-employees operations, as well as the speech elivered in the Dáil on this subject.

The simple fact is that they chose to leave full time employment with RTE and become a contractor because it was moer beneficial to them financially. Stop acting like they're the ones sacrificing.