Up to 157 workers at RTÉ may have been misclassified as self-employed, resulting in them losing out on certain employment benefits, according to a review by Eversheds Sutherland.
The review could leave RTÉ open to claims for retrospective payments over several years for workers found to be incorrectly defined as self-employed.
RTÉ welcomed the report and said it would be implementing the recommendations in full.
The Eversheds Sutherland report was commissioned after complaints by unions that hundreds of workers could have been hired as self-employed freelancers, rather than as direct employees.
Of the 433 contracts reviewed, 106 - or 25% - were assessed as "having attributes akin to employment" and requiring individual review.
A further 51 contractors - 12% - were found to have attributes akin to both employment and self-employment, and would also require review - though after the first cohort of 106.
The remaining 276 were deemed not to be normally considered as employees, so no further review would be required.
RTÉ noted that Eversheds found that the majority of those reviewed had been appropriately engaged as contractors.
Director of Human Resources Eimear Cusack said RTÉ would embrace the Eversheds Sutherlands recommendations in full.
They include the introduction of an overarching policy for the engagement of freelancers, clear guidelines on how and when to engage a contractor or an employee, and a review of the contractor population as prioritised to apply the new policy accordingly.
RTÉ said it would have the new policy and guidelines in place by September, and will then commence the individual contract reviews.
They hope to conclude those by the end of the year.
Asked about the potential that wrongly classified employees might be entitled to significant retrospective payments for pension contributions, sick pay, holiday pay maternity pay and other entitlements, RTÉ said that the priority was to put the policy and guidelines in place, and other issues would be discussed after that.
A spokesperson for the RTÉ Trade Union Group said they welcomed the report, and were considering it.
They urged the company to implement its findings as soon as possible.
