Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

You really have to laugh when you go back to the start of this thread and where we are now. laugh is probably the wrong word.

They are redundancy payments though - there's specific laws around them and I've not seen them included within the contracts of employments of staff mainly because of the "default" redundancy payment laws in force and the fact that companies don't know down the line if they will ever need to have their own redundancy schemes (and as such not know what the specifics of these schemes will be until if and when they need them).

Not all of these people left on "redundancy" and while it may have been refered to as redundancy there's serious questions to ask around whether they were redundancies or "golden handshakes" or just more taking the pi$$ outta Joe Public.

It would be great to know that if I felt like leaving my job I'd get a lump sum payment of my actual salary or multiples of my salary as appears to have been the case here - with little or no cost savings for the organisation as a result (i'd be replaced) and sure look, if I was crap at my job, felt a bit of heat coming on (as is the case in a few individual cases here) and decided to leave - getting a massive payout would entice me to leave rather than deal with the issue.

Indeed - we don't do these types of things well as a country or we wouldn't be having these problems in the first instance I would have thought. It might be worth a representation to a local TD especially when we are near a GE as well as mass non-payment of license fees.

I don't agree with what Coveney and Collins got are redundancy payments, what they are pay offs simple as that or contractual buyouts. But as we see a lot in this country when it comes to dealing with these type of people they are never sacked, no one is ever sacked because these things can become costly and more drawn out so I am assuming RTE Legal representatives and Backhurst discussed what is the best way to handle this and they came up with offers for both of them if they left and agreed that to say that both parties agreed to it. Kinda of a win win, both Coveney and Collins get to leave and as we see don't have to face more questions about their behaviour in the roles and Backhurst gets to get rid of two more of the Forbes senior management team.

I would love to see just once in this country people like Coveney, Forbes, Collins and others get sacked on the spot and then go the legal route and everything is exposed in court but both RTE and those involved including TD's would dread to see that.

I'm sure both Coveney and Collins had their own legal team involved in this. You can bet the first thing they did when they got caught up all this crap is get a solicitor. Just look at O'Keefe, hiding behind her solicitors, having them send the note to the committee that she wouldn't be attending and then she is text Backhurst with a load of crap that she wants him to say on her behalf.

Do you think Coveney resigned willingly or was after his solicitors negotiated the terms of his leaving? Also was his role being made redundant while he was in or was it after he "resigned" that Backhurst said there was no need for his role anymore, there is a difference.

When there is no one watching the hen house the fox is going to take what it can get away with before its noticed, doesn't matter whether its male or female.

I agree.

Lets logicilly step this out.

We are told that the NDA's stop RTE from reporting the exit packages etc.

So you have KB using it as a smokescreen.

If RTE really wanted the sums published they wouldn't have agreed to the NDA's in the first instance. Now theres no one here stating that the reason for getting rid of those senior staff was in order to save money for the public purse (lol) so why were these folks removed? If it were their resignation I do not see how you can pay them off. If they were asked to leave, I also do not see how you can sign NDAs with them.

What is the impact of breaking an NDA - does anyone know?

Is it a fine/jail time/should anyone really care at this point?

But that is my point. If he wouldn't resign himself, KB had a mechanism to get him out with far less payment than 200K. Solicitor or no solicitor, RTE had no obligation other than statutory redundancy, legally and morally. 17 yrs x 2 weeks pay plus 1 month's notice payment is around 146K. Why didn't KB go this route? Why the need for 200K payment when he was covered by law in paying 146k? And why was it reported as Coveney "resigned"? They legitimately could say the role was made redundant. KB didnt say that at the PAC.

Even better! Which makes the 200K look absolutely outrageous. Why would KB risk his own reputation on this?

To me Coveney and Collins were not made redundant, they were sacked in all but name and given a payoff which they gladly accepted and then sailed off into the sunset like some others. All it shows is that Backhurst and RTE haven't learned any lessons and are still the same.

Why would it be voluntary redundancy? It should have been forced redundancy at statutory. The role has gone away. Its perfectly legit. Companies force redundancy on staff who want to stay, all the time.

Comes back to politics. I believe RTE were told last year by Govt. that there had to be redundancies but none compulsory. So the only way then to get rid of staff is to make it attractive.

While the Head of Strategy may be a redundancy position……The Financial Controller is never a redundant position whether voluntary or forced.

The bigger issue is the lack of control or awareness in finance.

Employers prefer paying a bit more than statutory if they can, as it also reduces a possible future Unfair Dismissal Hearing.

Forcing redundancy on staff can also lead to higher staff turnover from remaining employees.

I have a friend that has been stringing them along since March 2019. Needless to say he isn't in a hurry to pay the license.