Controversy over reform of French-speaking radio and television

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In autumn 2002, Belgium's French-speaking radio and television service, RTBF, launched a reform process known as the 'Magellan plan'. The aim is to modernise the organisational structure of RTBF and enable it to balance its finances, and the employment measures planned include 470 voluntary departures and 600 staff transfers. Trade unions are opposed to the employment aspects of the reform, and have held a number of strikes, while local groups have claimed that the plan means the disappearance of a community policy for French-speaking radio and television. However, the RTBF general administrator and architect of the reform, Jean-Paul Philippot, continues to enjoy support in political circles.

Radio-Télévision Belge de la Communauté Française (RTBF) is the radio and television service for the French-speaking community in Belgium. In late 2002, it is implementing a plan that focuses on 'strategy and change', known as the 'Magellan plan'. For some years previously, RTBF had undergone a series of reforms designed to reduce its 'public sector ponderousness' and make savings: the forward-looking 'Objectif 93' plan was followed by 'Horizon 97', a plan that aimed to make savings, and was designed to enable RTBF to achieve financial balance in 1997, mainly through an early retirement scheme and workforce reductions.

New general administrator

The instigator of the latest reform is Jean-Paul Philippot, RTBF’s general administrator since February 2002. Mr Philippot arrived at RTBF in controversial circumstances: a former head of public hospitals in Brussels, he has been criticised for his allegedly aloof managerial style, while the fact that he was the only candidate, and that confidential papers relating to his candidature were apparently held back, may have given the impression in some circles that the procedure leading up to his appointment was a political 'fix'. The first few issues that the new administrator tackled were fairly substantial, and included addressing RTBF’s financial management, and lending his support to a reorganisation of its second television channel.

After quickly obtaining backing from the French Community (Communauté française de Belgique) during May 2002 in his efforts to avoid further decline in the company’s finances, Mr Philippot planned a global reorganisation of RTBF, and it was against this backdrop that he engaged the services of the Andersen consultancy to carry out an audit. Mr Philippot argued that there was a need to combine plans for making savings with a change in the way that work was carried out within the organisation. Neither could happen without the other. Mr Philippot said that he wanted a radio-television service that had a strong identity and met the requirements of all sectors of the community.

Magellan plan

In this context, the period following the 2002 summer holiday season was stormy for RTBF. The period was marked by numerous changes, including 10 or so new television productions, and the announcement of massive changes in radio. However, the time was mainly notable for the scrutiny of the 'diagnostic' section of the Andersen audit, and the development of the new Magellan restructuring plan that followed in its wake.

RTBF currently runs six radio stations and two television channels (one general interest channel, and one aimed at specific categories of viewer). Furthermore, the RTBF structure is currently based on decentralisation to five regional production centres: the Brussels, Charleroi, Liège and Namur-Luxembourg-Brabant-Wallon centres produce both radio and television programmes, while the Mons centre only provides radio programmes. The organisation’s central structure is based in Brussels. The main conclusions of the Andersen audit focus on both television and radio.

Conclusions of the audit

The Andersen consultancy took the view that RTBF’s television channels lacked identity, and reached out to ageing sections of the population and 'inactive' socio-professional groups. The audit also observed that these channels were losing 'prime time' and late-evening audiences. At management level, decisions were being taken at too late a stage, production resources were not being put to best use, and there was no long-term overview. RTBF’s radio stations attracted similar kinds of comment: the audit noted, for example, that no RTBF radio stations commanded significant market share compared with their main radio rivals (Radio Contact and Bel-RTL). Andersen also argued that the radio programmes lacked identity, and appealed to increasingly ageing audiences. In short, production resources were not being put to best use, particularly at the Mons centre, and the coordination and management of all the radio stations were considered weak.

Content of the Magellan plan

The RTBF general administrator’s response to these conclusions was the Magellan plan. This is designed to transform RTBF's structure and re-establish financial balance. The main theme running through the changes proposed in Magellan is the specialisation and restructuring of the regional production centres. In addition to merging two radio stations and starting up another, the production centres are to specialise on the basis of the media employed, and the types of programme that they produce; for example, the two centres in Brussels and Mons will house five radio stations. As far as television is concerned, Brussels will specialise in information-related matters, Liège in entertainment, and Charleroi in magazine and documentary programmes, while Namur will become a documentation platform, and will cease to be a production centre. As far as the staff are concerned, these changes will mean not only geographical transfers but also a complete reorganisation of work. In organisational terms, a new five-level hierarchy will be established.

Employment features of the plan

RTBF currently employs some 2,700 full-time staff, of whom 71.8% are 'statutory' public employees. The Magellan plan seeks to make staff cuts through voluntary redundancies, using an early retirement scheme starting at the age 55 for workers with 20 years’ seniority, with a guaranteed income of 70% of gross salary. This measure is likely to affect about 470 people. The employment status of staff members is also under examination: from now on, only employees with duties linked to public service (eg journalists, technicians and producers) will remain statutory public employees; all other posts will be 'contractualised' (ie subject to normal private employment contracts). Furthermore, as many as 600 people could be affected by staff transfers brought about by restructuring the production centres.

Review of RTBF's statute

Following acceptance of the Magellan plan by RTBF's administrators, the government of the French Community approved a draft decree reviewing the company’s statute. This incorporates provisions contained in the Magellan plan, thereby ensuring government support for Mr Philippot’s plan. The decree includes the following measures:

• getting rid of senior officials in the regional production centres;

• introducing a scheme whereby some jobs will have temporary status;

• reducing deadlines for negotiations on the RTBF joint committee, and cutting short the mandates of the representatives currently on the committee;

• ensuring that there is at least one representative of each trade union on the joint committee;

• organising compulsory 'social elections' of employee representatives in order to ensure that staff are better represented; and

• broadening the space for dialogue on the joint committee through the participation of the minister with responsibility for radio and television.

Trade union and local reactions

The announcement of the content of the Magellan plan prompted fierce reactions from the trade unions, and particularly from the leadership of the General Public Services Union (Centrale Générale des Services Publics/Algemene Centrale der Openbare Diensten, CGSP/ACOD), affiliated to the Belgian General Federation of Labour (Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique/Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond, FGTB/ABVV). This union criticised the employment section of the plan, which it saw as unacceptable (470 voluntary departures and 600 transfers), and proposed a more wide-ranging reflection on the profit-making logic that underpins the plan: 'It is true', said the CGSP/ACOD general secretary, Francis Wegimont, 'that RTBF needed a salutary lesson over the sluggish practices that have handicapped production, but did it really have to forget the public service missions of a television and radio organisation that is supposedly in touch with its listeners and viewers? … We will fight to ensure that RTBF remains a public service with regard to the missions it performs, and the information it provides on a daily basis. There is a niche that it must hang on to, and which it must preserve if it does not want to be flooded with insipid private-sector programmes that have been made with an eye on ratings.' The Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens/Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond, CSC/ACV) does not question the need for reform either but, like CGSP/ACOD, it is unhappy about the measures imposed on staff and the plan’s 'productivity logic'.

Several days of general and limited strikes (in Namur and Liège) took place at RTBF in October and early November 2002. CSC/ACV took part in the first day’s strike, but held back subsequently on the grounds that negotiations were still taking place.

The trade unions were not alone in reacting to the Magellan plan: cultural organisations, associations and (local) political structures also mobilised, in particular emphasising the importance of RTBF’s community responsibilities and of access to local and regional information. This led to friction between the regions, and led to allegations in some quarters that some of the choices made by Mr Philippot, a member of the Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste, PS), had been politically motivated. Furthermore, Mons is alleged to have been chosen as a radio production centre as a way of favouring the town that two Socialist politicians come from: Elio di Rupo (the president of the Socialist Party) and Richard Miller (Minister of the Arts, the Humanities and Radio and Television). This view was refuted by the individuals concerned.

Commentary

As far as most of the actors are concerned, the principle of RTBF reform is not in question. However, it would be a mistake to lose sight of the RTBF’s general public service missions in respect of information, cultural development, continuing education, entertainment and programmes for young people. Although Mr Philippot does not see any contradiction between wider audiences and public service, it is vital that RTBF’s missions are not sacrificed, and that workers do not pay the price of the political and the ratings-led profitability logics that characterise private-sector channels. (Marinette Mormont, Institut des Sciences du Travail, UCL)