JUNE 2009
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STEPHEN POWER from Portland with Seattle-based fellow Waterford-man Eoin Doherty and Sophia Iliakis-Doherty, at the Seattle Gaels Green Lake Tournament on June 6.
ATTHE SEATTLE GAELS Green Lake Tournament on June 6 were (L-R) John O'Malley, Tommy Jordan, Mike Marron, Barry Carson and Dave Byrne.
THE COLUMBIA RED BRANCH hurling team from Portland, Oregon, which competed at the Seattle Gaels Green Lake Tournament on June 6.
THE SEATTLE GAELS Hurling team that competed at the Seattle Gaels Green Lake Tournament on June 6.
RTE on the brink of going bankrupt
DUBLIN - RTE is losing EUlm a week and will not be able to pay staff by October unless a programme of salary cuts and redundancies is implemented in the coming weeks.
The crisis comes amid growing anger among staff at the level of pay and bonuses paid to the director-general and senior management over the past number of years.
The bankruptcy warning has come from management at the State broadcaster and the director-general Cathal Goan has cautioned that up to 300 jobs are now under threat.
The cash-strapped station is facing a "worst case scenario" of a budget loss of up to EU100 million - far more than the current estimate of EU68 million.
The news comes as staff at the national broadcaster continue to ballot on whether or not to accept proposed pay cuts of up to 12.5 percent. A well-placed source at RTE has described the station as "sitting on a knife-edge," as the proposal is about to be put to a staff vote.
"This is make or break for RTE. There will be no other offers put on the table. Staff have been told that management is drawing up a list of people who they are going to make redundant, if necessary, to save money. The entire organisation is sitting on a knife-edge now."
Speaking about the prospect that RTE could run out of money by October because of high costs and a collapse in advertising revenue, a spokesperson for the station said, "We need to claw back EU68 million. It poses a significant cash crisis for RTE. "
Tension within the organisation is said to have reached fever pitch. Recently, a number of staff placed 'vote no' posters around the Donnybrook complex only to have them ripped down shortly afterwards.
There is also growing resentment among workers over the level of executive pay.
In 2007 Cathal Goan earned EU441,000, more than U.S. President Barack Obama. In the same year Goan's basic salary was EU283,000, his performance-related bonus was EU108,000, his pension supplement was EU23,000 and his other benefits amounted to EU27,000. His salary was up from EU360,000 on the previous year.
In the same year, managing directors in RTE earned between EU150,000 andEU200,000. They also received a bonus of EU20,000, a 'performance-related uplift' of EU5,200 and another EU30,000 for simply being a member of the executive board.
The figures are the last official earnings to have been released by the state broadcaster. Management have said they have since taken pay cuts to their bonuses but the publication of the 2008 Annual Report, currently due out, has been delayed.
All members on the executive board also receive EU12,000 a year for driving their cars to work. The 'car allowance' is given to managers who simply park in the station car park at Donnybrook.
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