Defends top salaries

ORF General Weißmann: “Salaries are not out of reach”

ORF General Roland Weißmann in an interview with "Krone" after a week dominated by top salaries on the Küniglberg

(Bild: Klemens Groh)

In an interview with "Krone", ORF Director General Roland Weißmann talks about envy, mega-contracts, state broadcasting as a transparency pioneer and "significantly fewer side jobs in future".

"Krone": Mr. Director General, is your job still fun, or is your salary currently just compensation for pain and suffering? 
Roland Weißmann: (Laughing) Of course the job is still fun. I still enjoy coming to ORF every day. It is now the halfway point of my term of office and I am full of energy to implement the next steps.

ORF General Roland Weißmann in an interview with "Krone" after a week dominated by top salaries on the Küniglberg

(Bild: Klemens Groh)

At the beginning of the week, the ORF was obliged by law to publish its 62 top salaries starting at 170,000 euros gross per year. In an email to employees, you warned against a debate fueled by envy. But don't you somehow understand the public's anger about these sums, which are de facto - in quotation marks - co-financed by the household tax?
ORF has around 4,000 employees. I understand the emotion, of course. And I have also personally received some critical emails. But it has to be said that I, as well as other employees, have also received supportive emails. It was to be expected, of course - Austria is a country where people are not used to talking about their salary. Quite frankly: I am committed to this transparency. We are the spearhead. But it's like a soccer match: the second half comes - and after the emotion, we now enter this phase of explanation and classification.

Top contracts for the Ö3 presenters: Part-time emperor Andi Knoll (left) and ORF top earner Robert Kratky

(Bild: Starpix / picturedesk.com)

Do you let the Ö3 alarm clock wake you up?
Yes! It depends, I listen to Ö3-Wecker in combination with the Ö1-Morgenjournalen.

Speaking of Ö3, radio voice Robert Kratky and ORF dinosaur Pius Strobl, who is actually already at the prime retirement age of 67, are ahead of you on the list. Doesn't that make you feel envious yourself, and when do the two fixed-term mega-contracts expire?
(Laughing again) Well, I'm not really envious. I'm more of an Anglo-Saxon type and stand by my salary. I see these transparency regulations as a pioneer in a new wave of disclosure, so to speak. And I assume that other companies will follow suit or will be called upon by politicians to do so.

You mentioned it correctly. These are fixed-term contracts that will expire in the near future.

Zu den Gehältern von Kratky und Strobl

Now you've evaded me a bit by asking when the contracts will expire?
You mentioned it correctly, these are fixed-term contracts that will also expire in the near future. Incidentally, like so many of the contracts on this list. There is already an overwhelming number of employees who have a completely different collective agreement to people who have been with the company for a very long time. We are now finding it more difficult to attract young employees to the company.

In the "ZiB 2" interview with Armin Wolf, ÖVP Secretary General Christian Stocker spoke of snivelling because of the publication. Are you snivelling salary emperors at ORF?
Not at all! We are happy to engage in this discussion. The ORF is a successful media company, and if we look at the contracts and salaries in an international comparison, then the ORF is fully compliant and not detached from the industry. And here's another example: Three or four years ago, before I was in office, Robert Kratky received an offer from a private competitor. I know this offer (editor's note: rumored annual salary of 500,000 euros), and it was higher than what he is getting now. So the question of salary always arises from the market.

Isn't there also an internal rumbling due to the large income gap between older and younger employees?
You don't have to believe that it's all bliss at ORF. Quite the opposite. ORF has to make savings in all areas and has been doing so for years. This means that we cannot spend more money than we earn.

 Is it fair that Ö3 Weckermann Robert Kratky receives around twelve times the monthly salary of an average Austrian earner and even more than you for what feels like a 25-hour week from Monday to Friday?
Obviously the market value is higher, as the example I mentioned shows. Of course, you can always discuss such things. You just have to use market comparisons. The ORF is one of around 450 companies audited by the Austrian Court of Audit. There you can also read that there are 58 managers who receive more than my predecessor.

We should all work on a Media Pact 2030. Because it is so important for democracy in this country.

Über Fake News und Medienstandort

Many people also don't understand, when you're already earning top salaries in the public sector, when these colleagues still have the time to earn extra money in side jobs. 
I can only speak for the future. We have now implemented the new Code of Ethics in parallel with the transparency report. And to put it simply: there will still be side jobs in the future, but to a much lesser extent and much more strictly regulated than before.

Could you also live with funding from the budget instead of a household levy, as the FPÖ wants?
I have always held back from giving advice to legislators. But one thing is clear: we alone invest around 100 million every year in the domestic film industry, 100 million in art and culture, 100 million in popular and top-class sport, in the popular regional studios, the network of correspondents and much more. If the ORF no longer does this, then there will be no one in this country to take over.