SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

It defines the different aspects of the Plan for the Reorganization and the Future which are being negotiated
 

• The Corporation´s territorial structure will meet the public service and it will organize the territory within the communication area
• The number of in-house production hours since 2007 in TVE1, TVE2 and Teledeporte will amount, at least, to 8,200
• The goal is to have in the new RTVE a workforce made up by 5,900 regular workers and 500 with fixed-term contracts. This workforce will be made up by the Corporation´s workers, those from the companies or foundations in which it has a majority participation or control and those from the Group in liquidation. The number of redundant workers is set at 4,150
• The Agreement makes possible to carry out actions for internal reorganization, allows the creation of 1,358 new jobs and the transformation of 450 fixed-term contracts into regular contracts

The Chairman and the Vice President of the state-owned holding company Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), Mr. Enrique Martínez Robles and Mr. Federico Montero; the General Manager and the General Secretary of the state-owned radio and television station RTVE, Ms. Carmen Caffarel and Mr. Jaime Gaiteiro, today have subscribed with the persons in charge of the trade unions present in the radio and television corporation (UGT, Comisiones Obreras, APLI and USO) an Agreement regarding the principles and issues of the negotiation process opened around the Plan for the Reorganization and the Future of RTVE, which makes possible to start operating RTVE Corporation, within the framework of the just passed Act 17/2006 about the state-owned radio and television.

The Plan for the Reorganization and Future of RTVE seeks to answer that stipulated in Auxiliary Disposition 35 of the Act 30/2005 of the General State Budget, and its objective is to guarantee the fulfillment of the public-service function which the future RTVE Corporation must provide to the citizenship, in keeping with the role attributed to it by the above Act for the reorganization of the state-owned radio and television.

Fundamental aspects of the negotiation process

The territorial and functional structure, the in-house production, the Orchestra and Chorus, the Documentary Archive, the externalization, the multimedia and interactivity area and employment make up the fundamental aspects of the negotiation process, over which are inlaid the principles to which the Agreement will be subjected. As the document subscribed acknowledges, the model of the Corporation RTVE will guarantee the existence of a radio and television territorial structure which meets the public service which the Act attributes to it, and which carries out the cohesion and territorial organization function within the communication field.

The new Corporation will have a majority shareholding participation in the Companies or Entities to which are attributed the activities which before were carried out by the Ente Público RTVE and its affiliated companies, or which the new Corporation might decide to start, as well as those which are created with the participation of private capital or with agencies of different public administrations.

The agreement subscribed by SEPI, RTVE and the trade unions stipulates that the number of in-house production hours, from January 1st, 2007 in TVE1, TVE2 and Teledeporte, will be at least of 8,200. In any case, the number of hours of in-house production in non-news programs will not be less than at this moment, without prejudice to that which might be stipulated in the Framework Mandate and in the consecutive Program Contracts which might be subscribed in accordance with the State-owned radio and television Act.

About 23% of the in-house production hours, news programs excluded, will be made at the Sant Cugat center, which will have capacity to decide, organize and control over the production of children programs and the Teledeporte channel, without prejudice to the general coordination which the Corporation might establish for all its production centers.

At the Canary Islands productions will be made which are related to its special condition as an insular and remote region, as well as with its special geographical location with regard to the African and American continents. The requirements resulting from the different time hour will be taken into account. Equally, the works currently being carried out for maintaining the 7-day per week broadcast of the channel Docu-TV by TVE´s Territorial Center in Valencia will be maintained.

With regard to the externalization, this will respect that stipulated in the current collective agreement regarding this issue; and, in any case, the new Corporation will control those activities which are externalized, guaranteeing that the companies which provide the service meet the required terms and conditions.

The signatory parties also agree in guaranteeing the continuity of RVTE´s Orchestra and Chorus within the Corporation, according to a legal figure which solves the current difficulties regarding the Community requirements. In the legal figure which might be finally adopted, the Corporation will have a dominant presence and position, guaranteeing that the working terms and conditions for the workers of the Orchestra and Chorus are the same than for the staff of the RTVE Corporation. Equally, it is guaranteed that the new Corporation will maintain the ownership and management of the Documentary Archive.

The Multimedia and interactivity area will be created for managing the RTVE´s Internet platform, as well as for the development of new multimedia and interactivity service projects, which make possible for RTVE Corporation to be at a par with the performance of other public service providers. In this way, it will be possible to optimize the management of current contents and to begin researching new services and products, with the creation of specific teams attached to different platforms (Internet, Mobile/PDA and Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), especially as it affects the service provision for the information society of public interest). Besides, a Research, Development and innovation (R&D+i) Unit will be created, with the goal of contributing to the promotion of the production and commercialization of in-house products and services.

Medidas laborales

The Agreement includes the measures which must be adopted for adjusting the workforce to the new model for RTVE, with 5,900 regular workers and 500 with fixed-term contracts, taking into account the total of employees in the Corporation, the companies or foundations in which the Corporation has a majority participation, or which are controlled by it and those in the Group in liquidation. Equally, it has been agreed that the maximum level of fixed-term contracts, as a percentage of the objective workforce, will be 10%.

The objective workforce requires a surplus of about 4,150 workers. Besides this downsizing, it is sought to adopt internal reorganization measures, to allow the creation of 1,358 new jobs and the rejuvenation of the workforce, as well as the transformation of 450 fixed-term contracts into regular jobs.

All these measures are basically aimed at maintaining the highest possible employment level, through the integration into the regular workforce of the new Corporation in a compatible way with the organizational an feasibility requirements stipulated by legal mandate. It is also a fundamental principle to offer a solution to the workers surplus through measures which ameliorate the negative effects on the workers affected.

In this sense, a complementary benefits system will be negotiated, for having access to an early-retirement system for regular workers who have been in the Company for at least 6 years and who are at least 52 years old on December 31st, 2006, an age requirement which is extended until December 31st, 2008.

Also a voluntary redundancy system for workers younger than 52 years will be negotiated, of acceptance by the worker and approval by the company, as well as a mobility and functional adequacy system which allows the employs to adapt themselves again to functions which correspond to their respective professional capabilities. To this end, training, retraining and adjustment systems and plans will be set-up, as well as remuneration and benefits guarantees.

The workers will be able to indicate to the Company´s Management their inclination to accept any of the proposed measures, communicating their decision during a 30-day period since the authorization of the compulsory special redundancy program, and in any case, by October 30th, 2006. Once it has this information at its disposal, and after consulting it with the trade unions, the Company´s Management will submit the list of redundant workers to the authorities competent in industrial relations.

Once the workforce has been determined, as well as the surpluses which correspond to the different measures for leaving the workforce, the redundant workers, if any, will have at their disposal solutions for either their placement within the Company or for outplacement, being voluntary both the geographical mobility and the outplacement.

A Commission made up by the CGI and the Company will analyze the typology of the current non-regular employees of the Grupo RTVE, to determine the groups which must be the object of a specific treatment and, whether that were so decided, for their integration within the Corporation. The Agreement will be submitted to the Follow-Up Commission by the end of July 2006, so that this commission can take the appropriate decision.

As part of the voluntary redundancy program, the Company will previously submit a negotiating proposal to the CGI which allows to regularize the pay raises corresponding to 2005 and 2006, taking into account the agreements which might be finally reached regarding the seventeenth collective agreement.

Finally, the subscribed document points out that for making possible the incorporation to the workforce of the new Corporation RTVE and the maintenance of the higher number of jobs possible and compatible with the new organizational structure, a framework of terms and conditions for the system for fixing the professional categories, the distribution of the work-time and the remunerations structure will be set up.

The terms and conditions included in the Agreement which was signed today will subjected to negotiation within the voluntary redundancy program which will be submitted by RTVE. It is also pointed out the need to negotiate a new regulation of the trade unions´ rights and the representation rights, for applying it to the new Corporation.

Finally, the Commission for the Follow-Up of this Agreement is constituted, in which will be present the signing parties to it, and which will be responsible of analyzing and making the follow-up of the entities incorporation, as well as any other collaboration measure between the Corporation and the autonomous regional governments.