A video editor at RTÉ lost a €360,000 employment rights claim after the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ruled she failed to prove employee status during the relevant period. The editor claimed misclassification as a contractor from 2004 to 2011 led to denied entitlements and suppressed earnings. RTÉ's lawyers argued the WRC lacked jurisdiction due to time limits.
Broadcaster’s lawyers said commission had no jurisdiction to rule on case due to time limits in the Workplace Relations Act A video editor in the RTÉ newsroom has lost a €360,000 employment rights claim after a ruling that she failed to establish in evidence that she was an employee during the relevant period. Photograph: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie after a ruling that she failed to establish in evidence that she was an employee during the relevant period.
Maebh Keary di Lucia claimed she was denied pay-related statutory entitlements and her earnings were suppressed because she “misclassified” as a contractor from 2004 to 2011, when she was working shifts in RTÉ. Keary di Lucia said when she subsequently received a contract of employment it “incorrectly” stated that she started work at the national broadcaster in 2011. That meant her service was not recognised, her advancement on the pay scale for her grade was delayed, and she has been denied a long-service allowance since summer 2024.
She pointed to determinations by the Department of Social Protection, the Social Welfare Appeals Office, and the Revenue Commissioners that despite being paid via invoice, Keary di Lucia had been an employee prior to receiving a contract of employment in 2011. Keary di Lucia said that in response to “consistent findings” of “misclassification”, RTÉ had “solely paid PRSI”.
RTÉ’s lawyers said the WRC had no jurisdiction to rule on the case due to time limits in the Workplace Relations Act. Keary di Lucia said she was being denied her rights under European Union directives, requiring the WRC to set time limits aside. Keary di Lucia said she wrote to a manager arguing that she ought to be on staff starting in February 2007 and pursued a dispute to the Labour Relations Commission in 2008.
At the WRC case last year, broadcaster Colm Ó Mongáin appeared as a witness and gave evidence on a conversation he overheard in May 2008 in the RTÉ news department between a manager and a senior video editor responsible for rostering. “I heard tell that he should only use Maebh as a last resort until this thing had blown over. I was surprised by that because Maebh was very much a go-to video editor,” Ó Mongáin said.
Asked by adjudicator Christina Ryan whether she had made further requests about her working conditions, Keary di Lucia said: “I didn’t, because of the evidence Colm Ó Mongáin gave. “I became very stressed and my hair began to fall out. I felt I could not pursue the issue,” she said. In her decision, published on Tuesday , Ryan wrote that Keary di Lucia’s complaints all relied on a finding that she was an employee at the relevant time.
Though Keary di Lucia had presented some 4,400 pages of documents in support of her case, “it was not opened, explained or verified in oral evidence by the complainant”.
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