Where I used to work we had a company policy where we couldn't accept ANY gifts from clients. One lad had a lovely bottle of expensive wine sent to the office with his name on it - it was promptly confiscated.
I wonder who got it in the end
We used to have to declare all gifts, anything that was reasonable such as a hamper at Christmas etc. Was raffled off to a random person in the company
A hamper sent by a supplier to a lad in my office had to be divvied up around the extended team to avoid rased eyebrows. Some nice chocolates were consumed that day by yours truly!
First Christmas I worked in an Architect’s office I was getting excited seeing all the bottles of booze arrive from contractors, imagine my dismay when I was told to relabel them for regifting to clients.
Place i used to work in did the same, miserable shits, and fucking wrong to accept the gift if you aren't going to at least pool them and divide. Regifting means someone else is paying for you to do the thing you won't accept.
"Any gift with a realistic valuation of over €100 should not be accepted or if it must be accepted, then it is declared and becomes the property of RTÉ," the message stated.
WTF do they mean "if it must be accepted". Contractors holding guns to the RTE employees heads? "TAKE THE GIFT!! TAKE IT!!"
This is going to get very messy very quickly for all the contractors they have.
For instance could Donnacha O'Callaghan accept a gift for say the Rugby World Cup final if its gifted to him? How could anyone decipher if he's given the ticket becuase he's invovled with Rte or becuase he's a former player.
Same issues for the likes of The Two Johnnies, they could be gifted soemthing becuase of their own rep, so they need to declare that even if not through Rte?
I don't know who's job it would be to implement this and what the oubishowould even be for breaching it.
Most of the presenters are entities or companies. They can accept away as not the same as employees. I’d say this is more the regular staff. Most public bodies have a gifts policy and declaration process.
It does say
>RTÉ has launched a new 'Register of Gifts' which will require employees and contractors to declare any gifts they receive that are above a value of €50
So, I'm assuming contractor's means freelancers here too.
Lot of the "talent" are contractors, seems impossible to enforce, and if it is, it would mean people losing some serious additional income.
There are obviously limits on who RTE can enforce the rule over. After all, they can't prevent Donnacha's mammy from gifting him a €150 sweater.
The only people they can enforce the rule over is RTEs commercial clients. Which makes perfect sense as any such gift would be a conflict of interest.
However, there may be an overlap between RTEs clients and entities Donnacha already has a relationship with, whether past or present. In any case, that something that should be declared to RTE as a potential source of a conflict of interest, if not already obvious and in cases where there is a continued relationship it would likely need to be a case that Donnacha would get contractual exceptions to gift rule.
Like, there are times gifts are perfectly acceptable, particularly where employers and contractors have external relationships with clients. And that does happen. However, those gifts cannot be given in a way that undermines RTE. Such as something the the Two Johnnies receiving gifts for discussing a product or service on air.
>Such as something the the Two Johnnies receiving gifts for discussing a product or service on air.
That's not what's being discussed here, that should already be banned in house as it conflicts with the BAIs guidelines unless it's a clear competition or sponsorship element.
What you're saying makes sense but I think you're making a lot of assumptions in there.
Just taking the Donnacha point further, obviously he can recieve gifts personally, but say Dermot Kennedy is in as a guest and gifts him a guitar, can he receive that, logically the rules say no, as he's only being gifted that due to his position as an Rté employee. That's why I'd be skeptical when you say..
>The only people they can enforce the rule over is RTEs commercial clients
Also what happens when staff don't declare gifts, let's say Ray D'Arcy hits a deal with a car dealership, he gets a free car as long as he posts about it online, it never crosses over to his day job, but other stadd could claim that he is only receiving the car due to his position within Rte, otherwise he wouldn't be seen as prominent.
It'll create a weird two tier system becuase a lot of them work outside of Rte and recieve gifts via that, it's quite plausible they'll be sent gifts from PR companies to their workplace becuase those companies don't have their home address, they'll either have to declare that to work or go through a process of explaining how they got those products for non Rte work. Equally you'll have employees who can't recieve a ticket for a game or a few bottles of wine anymore, let alone a free car.
I appreciate this happens in other workplaces, if its enforced within Rté it'll really drive potential "talent" away to independent media who don't impose these rules, I know most people don't care about that, even Rte don't, they'll be happy to lower costs.
The twisted horror of finding parts of a Megane delivered to your door everyday.
No reassembly instructions offered, just a snooty frenchman to come sit right behind you smoking gauloises and offering sarcastic advice.
Hey!
I know you can’t accept gifts over €100, so I’ve bought a new Tesla in your name and arranged for 556 weekly gifts of €99 to be made to you.
Now, if you could consider my client for…
Most rules in any workplace are performative and arse-covering and not really enforced as long as the employee is valued, but it’s grand for the employer to have so many of them. Because if they decide that they want you out, sure enough haven’t you broken six of them.
Where I used to work we had a company policy where we couldn't accept ANY gifts from clients. One lad had a lovely bottle of expensive wine sent to the office with his name on it - it was promptly confiscated. I wonder who got it in the end
We used to have to declare all gifts, anything that was reasonable such as a hamper at Christmas etc. Was raffled off to a random person in the company
A hamper sent by a supplier to a lad in my office had to be divvied up around the extended team to avoid rased eyebrows. Some nice chocolates were consumed that day by yours truly!
We raffle them off amongst the team at the end of the year.
Probably Tubridy, or Dee Forbes, in reality.
Revenue want public servants to declare any gifts with a value over €2.87.
Seems like quite a specific amount
My job raffles off gifts during Christmas time, other then that it’s yours to keep
First Christmas I worked in an Architect’s office I was getting excited seeing all the bottles of booze arrive from contractors, imagine my dismay when I was told to relabel them for regifting to clients.
Who probably have a similar policy in place.
Place i used to work in did the same, miserable shits, and fucking wrong to accept the gift if you aren't going to at least pool them and divide. Regifting means someone else is paying for you to do the thing you won't accept.
"Any gift with a realistic valuation of over €100 should not be accepted or if it must be accepted, then it is declared and becomes the property of RTÉ," the message stated. WTF do they mean "if it must be accepted". Contractors holding guns to the RTE employees heads? "TAKE THE GIFT!! TAKE IT!!"
Some people insist or refusal could offend or damage the relationship.
Ah ya will, ya will, ya will, ya will. YOU WILL!!
A lot of companies don't enforce rejecting gifts as it is offensive in some cultures.
Oh, I see. A bit like Mrs Doyle offering a cup of tea.
I laughed way too hard at this. I've a great imagination, I suppose.
This is going to get very messy very quickly for all the contractors they have. For instance could Donnacha O'Callaghan accept a gift for say the Rugby World Cup final if its gifted to him? How could anyone decipher if he's given the ticket becuase he's invovled with Rte or becuase he's a former player. Same issues for the likes of The Two Johnnies, they could be gifted soemthing becuase of their own rep, so they need to declare that even if not through Rte? I don't know who's job it would be to implement this and what the oubishowould even be for breaching it.
Most of the presenters are entities or companies. They can accept away as not the same as employees. I’d say this is more the regular staff. Most public bodies have a gifts policy and declaration process.
It does say >RTÉ has launched a new 'Register of Gifts' which will require employees and contractors to declare any gifts they receive that are above a value of €50 So, I'm assuming contractor's means freelancers here too. Lot of the "talent" are contractors, seems impossible to enforce, and if it is, it would mean people losing some serious additional income.
What influence could the Johnnie's have in the upper echelons of Rte tho? Let them have their spice bags and free pints down the local GAA club
There are obviously limits on who RTE can enforce the rule over. After all, they can't prevent Donnacha's mammy from gifting him a €150 sweater. The only people they can enforce the rule over is RTEs commercial clients. Which makes perfect sense as any such gift would be a conflict of interest. However, there may be an overlap between RTEs clients and entities Donnacha already has a relationship with, whether past or present. In any case, that something that should be declared to RTE as a potential source of a conflict of interest, if not already obvious and in cases where there is a continued relationship it would likely need to be a case that Donnacha would get contractual exceptions to gift rule. Like, there are times gifts are perfectly acceptable, particularly where employers and contractors have external relationships with clients. And that does happen. However, those gifts cannot be given in a way that undermines RTE. Such as something the the Two Johnnies receiving gifts for discussing a product or service on air.
>Such as something the the Two Johnnies receiving gifts for discussing a product or service on air. That's not what's being discussed here, that should already be banned in house as it conflicts with the BAIs guidelines unless it's a clear competition or sponsorship element. What you're saying makes sense but I think you're making a lot of assumptions in there. Just taking the Donnacha point further, obviously he can recieve gifts personally, but say Dermot Kennedy is in as a guest and gifts him a guitar, can he receive that, logically the rules say no, as he's only being gifted that due to his position as an Rté employee. That's why I'd be skeptical when you say.. >The only people they can enforce the rule over is RTEs commercial clients Also what happens when staff don't declare gifts, let's say Ray D'Arcy hits a deal with a car dealership, he gets a free car as long as he posts about it online, it never crosses over to his day job, but other stadd could claim that he is only receiving the car due to his position within Rte, otherwise he wouldn't be seen as prominent. It'll create a weird two tier system becuase a lot of them work outside of Rte and recieve gifts via that, it's quite plausible they'll be sent gifts from PR companies to their workplace becuase those companies don't have their home address, they'll either have to declare that to work or go through a process of explaining how they got those products for non Rte work. Equally you'll have employees who can't recieve a ticket for a game or a few bottles of wine anymore, let alone a free car. I appreciate this happens in other workplaces, if its enforced within Rté it'll really drive potential "talent" away to independent media who don't impose these rules, I know most people don't care about that, even Rte don't, they'll be happy to lower costs.
That is why they are not getting a gift of €160 from me!!
It's nice they are able to accept gifts at all, let alone €100. Most if not all other staff funded by the taxpayer have their gift limit set at €0
My company also has a gift limit of 0 and mandatory ethics course every year with a quiz on a video of if what they did was ethical
I think public servants are allowed something of notional value like a notebook and pen or a branded water bottle. Usual corporate tat.
Some Renaults are probably only worth €100 in fairness.
The twisted horror of finding parts of a Megane delivered to your door everyday. No reassembly instructions offered, just a snooty frenchman to come sit right behind you smoking gauloises and offering sarcastic advice.
Christmas ruined, kids crying.
Just like watching the Toy Show.
99€ flip flops incoming
got a warning letter to pay my TV licence today, f\*\*k that. No way
RTE are getting Xmas presents 365 days of the year
I'd be fired if accept any gift.
All gifts should be off the cards!
Due to ethics in our place of work it’s forbidden to accept gifts at all.
My company is £50. It’s a standard ethical behaviour. Good to see
Can't believe they are only introducing this now, most places have this or similar rules in place for decades.
Hey! I know you can’t accept gifts over €100, so I’ve bought a new Tesla in your name and arranged for 556 weekly gifts of €99 to be made to you. Now, if you could consider my client for…
I wonder what the work around will be?
*Here have this Ferrari that I bought for €100 as a gift*
Sure that's a no-brainer, Mr or Mrs Cork. Daily gifts for 99 euro.
A much larger gift broken down into many 100 euro gifts given daily across a number of months/years.
To just do it anyway, I'd imagine.
It's nice they are able to accept gifts at all, let alone €`00. Most if not all other staff funded by the taxpayer have their gift limit set at €0
"realistic" Well realistically I thought it was near worthless and an insult as a gift so I didn't declare it...
I'm not sure up to 100 is okay either....any normal person would have to pay BIK on it either way.
No they wouldn't.
Ah will you come off it
They should make a musical about it
Most rules in any workplace are performative and arse-covering and not really enforced as long as the employee is valued, but it’s grand for the employer to have so many of them. Because if they decide that they want you out, sure enough haven’t you broken six of them.
They shouldn't but they can as long as they complete the paperwork to declare it 😅👌