Today\u2019s WRC ruling gives hope to many workers in the media sector who have long been denied their rights, but they shouldn’t have to battle this out in the courts, according to Social Democrats employment and media spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad Gibney.<\/p>\n
Deputy Gibney said:<\/p>\n
“We cannot avert our eyes to the glaring issues of bogus self-employment when RT\u00c9 continues to engage in litigation in order to deny that these people were ever employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Karshan ruling clarified the law but it did not change it – RT\u00c9 always had a duty to these workers as employees, it was simply interpreting the law incorrectly, for RT\u00c9’s own benefit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I asked their representatives in the Oireachtas Media Committee whether they had a litigation policy to avoid dragging employees who they\u2019ve wronged through the courts and incurring unnecessary legal expenses, I was told that there was no specific litigation policy in place.<\/p>\n
“To argue that RT\u00c9 can’t be expected to abide by the law because the scale of exploitation is so vast that it would be too much of a burden to the broadcaster beggars belief.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of precedent does it set that an employer can simply reach an upper limit of exploitation, beyond which they are unaccountable for their wrongs?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe media sector is known for tenuous working conditions and for its dubious application of employment rights – we should be pursuing action which encourages, and, if needed, enforces compliance with the law, not creating situations where employees just have to suck it up and move on.”<\/p>\n
July 25th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today\u2019s WRC ruling gives hope to many workers in the media sector who have long been denied their rights, but they shouldn’t have to battle this out in the courts, according to Social Democrats employment and media spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad Gibney. Deputy Gibney said: “We cannot avert our eyes to the glaring issues of bogus self-employment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[684,7,660,685,497],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employment","category-press-release","category-public-services","category-rte","category-sinead-gibney"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n