The RBB must save iron. The fact that the station’s management crisis is about nepotism and lavish executive salaries further increases the anger of the employees. A warning strike for an inflation adjustment affects the program.
Because of an RBB employee warning strike, the one-hour “ARD-Mittagsmagazin” in the joint program of Das Erste and ZDF has failed. At 1 p.m., TV viewers saw the program of the ARD news channel Tagesschau24 instead. Normally, ZDF also broadcasts the “ARD-Mittagsmagazin”, and the broadcaster extended its “Turntable” magazine as a replacement program. The reason for the warning strike is collective bargaining. In the RBB program, the walkout was clearly felt both on TV and on the radio. At about 1:00 p.m., the RBB television of the Berlin-Brandenburg public broadcaster broadcast a ten-minute report about aquatic animals instead of a news broadcast. The RBB expected that further news programs would be cancelled.
There were also effects on the radio in the morning and throughout the day. According to the RBB, for example, from 10 a.m. rbb24 Inforadio took over the program from NDR Info on its frequencies. rbbKultur broadcast a replacement program. The programs Radioeins, Antenne Brandenburg and rbb 88.8 were thinned out in places, with Fritz running a recorded program at noon. On the internet, rbb24 reported up-to-date, but to a lesser extent than usual. The ARD broadcaster informed on its website: “There are significant restrictions in our program today. We ask for your understanding.”
Unions had called for the walkout from 4:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. At noon there was a rally in front of the main location in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Verdi spoke of hundreds of participants. The posters that employees brought with them alone made it clear that the current RBB crisis surrounding allegations of nepotism at the top, controversial additional pay for management staff and personnel policy are also a factor in the displeasure.
The crisis in the RBB has also meant that it became apparent in the first place how much the ARD broadcaster will be under austerity measures in the next few years. Collective bargaining had recently also taken place in other ARD houses, and agreements had already been reached. RBB director Katrin Vernau said: “We regret the program failures, but at the same time understand the demands of the unions for appropriate inflation compensation.” The transmitter’s financial scope is limited. “Above all, we can not only simply distribute money in the ongoing collective bargaining negotiations, but want to use the new start in the company to, for example, permanently compensate for structural unequal treatment between permanent and freelance employees.” This requires a reliable analysis of the previous situation, which has not yet been available. “We’re working on it at full speed, because we want a sustainable collective agreement and want to return to the negotiating table as quickly as possible,” said Vernau, who began as director in the fall and is supposed to lead the station out of the crisis.
The German Association of Journalists (DJV) in Berlin spoke of earlier “mismanagement and self-service mentality at management level”. Employees should not be asked to pay for this. Verdi, for example, is calling for an increase of a monthly fixed amount of 555 euros for all permanent and freelance employees and all trainees as well as an increase in the fee framework in the current collective bargaining round. The collective agreement is to have a term of twelve months.
Meanwhile, the broadcaster’s broadcasting board met to discuss the legal fees incurred by the broadcaster in dealing with the felt scandal. An external law firm, among others, is currently still working on a final report of an audit that the compliance officer and the Board of Directors had requested. A date for the report has not yet been set. The station’s board of directors said at the meeting that the law firm had called in a conversation – but with reservations – at the end of April. According to the latest information from broadcaster Vernau, the legal fees for this law firm amounted to just under one million euros last year. In total, since the scandal broke out, legal fees of 1.4 million euros had been incurred by the end of 2022, which were spread across several law firms.
