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WHILE RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst has attracted plaudits for “hitting the ground running”, maybe he is moving too fast.
Certainly, Kev wasted no time before announcing the standing down of the broadcaster’s so-called executive board and its replacement with a “temporary interim leadership team”. Some of the (now) familiar names that don’t appear on the new team sheet have announced their early retirement on various grounds, including Geraldine O’Leary and Rory Coveney.
This is not the case for surely the most high-profile member of Montrose’s former first team, chief financial officer Richard Collins. In his squad announcement, Bakhurst promoted group financial controller Mike Fives to the interim team.
Since Collins has been very publicly moved aside, he could have a strong case for unfair dismissal. Given the haste with which Kevin Bakhurst started swinging his axe, there has been no proper disciplinary process carried out and no investigation of Collins’s performance in his role as CFO since 2020.
The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) is the place where these kinds of spats eventually get thrashed out and the body has been consistent in the past when dealing with cases where due process has not been followed and the opportunity to refute allegations has not been given before a worker is demoted or fired.
In such cases, the WRC can award successful complainants two years of remuneration. In the case of Collins, this could work out at a cool €½m.
