SEPI Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales

The trade unions with representation on the state-owned radio and televisión entity refuse to collect the document
 

• The goal of the reorganization process is to turn RTVE into a reference communication state-owned company for the citizenry
• The Plan proposes a rational organizational and geographic model, which agrees with the social, political and entrepreneurial reality
• RTVE will have a Multimedia and Interactive Area which can win over new audiences
• A proposal for a Labor Plan for Employment is announced, which will include early retirements and voluntary redundancies, the negotiation of an access system through restricted tests for hired staff, and a nation-wide official announcement for hiring civil servants
• RTVE´s Symphonic Orchestra and Chorus and the Documental Archive will treated in a specific way

The Representatives of the trade unions which are present in RTVE - UGT, Comisiones Obreras, APLI and USO, have been called today to a meeting by SEPI and RTVE with the aim of deepening into the Plan for the Reorganization and the Future. However, the workers´ Representatives walked out from the negotiation table when their requirement of getting a firm commitment for dismissing the informative action opened to a worker affiliated to UGT (a staff reporter of RNE in Grenade), who had breached his duty of covering the skeleton staff (servicios mínimos) for which he had been appointed for the strike which took place on April 5th.

The above action was filed by RTVE´s Management, and currently is being examined by the Court, and for that reason, is pending a final Court decision.

SEPI and RTVE regret the attitude shown by the trade unions´ Representatives, which has prevented any progress in the announcement of the Plan for the Reorganization and the Future of the state-owned radio and television, whose Act was passed yesterday by the Parliament.

Notwithstanding that the above mentioned meeting could not take place, SEPI and RTVE think that public opinion should know about the most significant aspects regarding this Plan for the Reorganization and the Future of RTVE, which is on display on the Web pages rtve.es and sepi.es.

The Plan´s Guidelines

The document which the trade unions refused to collect gives detailed information about the size of the future workforce of RTVE and its affiliated companies, which amounts to a total of 5,170 workers, of which 3,459 are in Televisión Española, 1,163 are in Radio Nacional de España, and 584 are in RTVE´s Corporative Center and Joint Services. It also develops the geographical structure of the new Corporation, which will keep a wide coverage for the totality of Spain for news gathering and the broadcasting of news from all the self-governing regions.

TVE will keep its current structure, with 16 Territorial Centers and news units for guaranteeing the geographical coverage, with a news production center in each one of these Territorial Centers, as well as the required editorial staff and for news gathering, and the support of the news units, depending on their geographical size and informative importance. RNE will guarantee the news coverage all over Spain, with 18 territorial broadcasting centers, located on all the self-governing regions, and 43 provincial news units.

The global amount for the envisaged workforce and which was announced today, with detailed information by areas, departments and territories, means a 315-employes increase over that previously submitted to the trade unions on March 10th. That increase is the result of the inclusion of new activities related to the digital field and to reasons raised during the discussion in Parliament of the Bill for the state-owned radio and television, and which was finally passed yesterday.

Among those adjustments, as has already been mentioned, is the creation of a new Multimedia and Interactive Area, which will be part of RTVE´s Joint Services. For the start-up of this unit, which was not initially envisaged, attention has been given to the fact that the immediate future offers new ways of communication which must be faced and promoted, as are those regarding internet and certain population groups, especially the young. To that end, it is required to maintain a specific structure for researching and the application of these new communication ways.

The meeting called today at SEPI´s headquarters was one more of those which took place on February 27th and March 10th and 28th for informing the trade unions about the global model and size of the workforce of the new RTVE.

The ultimate goal of this reorganization process resulting from the Plan for the Reorganization and the Future, which is similar to that already started or envisaged in other European state-owned radio and television networks, is to turn RTVE into a state-owned communication company which can be a reference point for the public. A financially sound and socially efficient RTVE, which has a financing system capable of supporting it, and which can guarantee the provision of radio and television public services.

The above is the Plan´s goal, which in its turn is the consequence of that required from RTVE in clause 35th of the State General Budget for the year 2006, which includes the mandate for preparing a model for financing RTVE which must meet the following requirements:
 

• To agree with the European Union criteria,
• To cover more than one year,
• To adapt the organizational structure, both at headquarters and at the geographical delegations,- To adapt the programming model,
• To adjust expenses and improve the turnover.

All of it with the goal of achieving an efficient and effective management of the public service.

The Plan for the Reorganization and the Future, as appears in the above mentioned documents, proposes a rational organizational and territorial model, in keeping with the social, political and entrepreneurial reality for the twenty first century. In the interactivity and multi-screen Age it is necessary to adapt RTVE to such a market, which every day becomes more and more competitive and different.

Labor Agreement for Employment

In order to carry out the above process, SEPI and RTVE declare that they will submit to the trade unions a proposal over a Labor Agreement for Employment, which, based on dialogue and negotiation, will include the following measures for full-time workers:
 

• Early retirements, according to terms and conditions which are financially convenient and socially acceptable.
• Voluntary redundancies for those workers who decide to quit RTVE.
• For the redundant workers, which have not been affected by the above measures, a set of possibilities will be in offer, in such a way that everybody will have at least one offer for an alternative job.

For all those with temporary contracts, it will be proposed the negotiation of an entry system through restricted tests. Besides, the Plan projection contemplates the forecast of generating new jobs.

All these adjustment measures will be applied in three stages:

1. Dissociation. The transfer of the current workforce to the so-called ´goal workforce´ will be carried out during the early retirement and voluntary redundancies process.

2. Internal adjustment measures. All those actions required for achieving the optimization of the work organization processes, which include functional and geographical mobility measures.

3. Filling of the vacancies. Once the above stages have concluded, a competitive selection process restricted to the hired staff will be called, and simultaneously, a nation-wide call for filling public service jobs left vacant as a result of the early retirement and the voluntary redundancies processes.

Symphonic Orchestra / Documental Archives

In the document prepared there are specific mentions to the future of RTVE´s Symphonic Orchestra and Chorus and that of RTVE´s Documental Archives, which will have a specific treatment, and whose staff is not included into the 5,170-strong ´goal workforce´.

The Documental Archives will be subjected to a specific project which will keep RTVE´s ownership and which will digitalize the information, for providing an answer to the following:
 

• The use of the Archives as a public service element.
• Its efficient use in RTVE´s production process.
• Its potential commercialization, especially via internet.

For the future of the Symphonic Orchestra and Chorus its legal adjustment will be sought, which guarantees its continuity, with a financing system which meets the requirements set by the European Commission, maintaining its current relationship with RTVE for its future intensive use in RTVE´s programming, modernizing its management.