ESB unions will today lodge a £36 million pay claim for 8,000 employees at the company, writes Colman Cassidy. The group of unions is to formally present its case for a per capita pay increase of £4,500 backdated to 1997 to the ESB's internal arbitration body, the Joint Industrial Council.
The unions say their members are entitled to the increase under the current national wage agreement. The claim is the equivalent of a 12.5 per cent share of the estimated £300 million in profits that the ESB has made over the past two years. The company's response last night was that the claim contravenes both the spirit and intent of Partnership 2000. But the union's argument is that it is in line with the guidelines laid down in the current national wage agreement.
"The claim is entirely legitimate," SIPTU's energy branch secretary, Mr Tony Dunne said. "It's in line with Irish Congress of Trade Unions policy as well as Chapter 9 of the Partnership 2000 document, which provides that employees are entitled to a legitimate share in their company's expansion."
The company is resisting the claim on the basis that it is a cost increasing measure and, therefore, not allowed under the terms of Partnership 2000. It also argues that there is provision for profit-sharing under the Cost and Competitiveness Review (CCR) under which ESB employees will receive up to 5 per cent of the company's profits over a number of years.
The £270 million CCR, which was voted through by the unions two years ago by only the slimmest of margins, incorporated significant changes in work practices and the shedding of more than 2,000 jobs. A key inducement for many workers was the 5 per cent profit-sharing scheme, which comes into effect on January 1st, 2000, when the ESB becomes a public liability company.
The SIPTU branch secretary denied that the claim would increase the ESB's operating costs, as the company argues. He argued that the group of unions had a legitimate claim that had been sanctioned by the ICTU: "The fact is that the company has been enjoying record profits, based on the productivity of its employees. If there were no profits, there would be no claim."