RTÉ confirms 325 applications for voluntary exit programme

Gordon Deegan

RTÉ has received 325 applications from staff seeking to avail of the broadcaster's voluntary exit programme.

In an email to staff on Friday, Director General, Kevin Bakhurst has now confirmed that RTE’s Voluntary Exit Programme (VEP) is now closed.

In the email, Mr Bakhurst said: "As you know, this VEP comprises a Voluntary Severance (VS) and Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) scheme and was open to employees who will have completed at least two years’ continuous service on the date their employment ceases.

He said: "Applications will be approved only where a robust business case is made, and it is confirmed that the role can be suppressed or that equivalent savings can be made by suppressing an alternative post and/or redeploying an employee into that role."

Confirming the 325 total to have applied, Mr Bakhurst said that "applicants can choose to accept or decline an offer of VS or VER".

He said: "Where decisions are straightforward and approved by RTÉ’s Leadership Team and the RTÉ Board’s Remuneration and Management Committee, we will make every effort to allow these people leave the organisation as early as is practical, without unduly impacting our operations.

Mr Bakhurst said: "All applications will go through a five-stage review process throughout the coming months, as previously outlined, with final decisions on all applications being made by the Leadership Team and final oversight by the RTÉ Board’s Remuneration and Management Committee.

He said that a review of applications has already commenced. He said: "While there may be exceptions, communication of final decisions will commence from 1st September, with exits of successful applicants taking place on 31st October, 30th November and 31st December.”

RTÉ opened the scheme on April 23rd, where it capped redundancy payments at €300,000.

Those with five to ten years of service will receive five weeks of pay per year, and employees working with RTÉ for more than ten years will get six weeks' pay for every year of service.

The payments will be based on an employee's exit salary and they will not qualify for any further redundancy.

In a previous email to staff on the VEP, Mr Bakhurst cautioned that while the Department of Public Expenditure has given RTÉ approval to operate a VEP this year, any future scheme could be less financially beneficial than this one.

The approval of a redundancy plan at RTÉ by the Government was confirmed on March 28th.

The VEP comes as part of a five-year strategy announced in 2023, where the broadcaster outlined a plan to reduce staff numbers by up to 400.