ESB workers accept new pay and restructuring deal

ESB workers have voted to accept major restructuring in the company, clearing the way for a £2 billion upgrade in the national grid.

The Programme to Achieve Competitiveness and Transformation (PACT) gives workers pay increases of up to 21 per cent in return for almost 2,000 redundancies, £100 million annual savings and a massive programme of change.

The deal involves some 70 separate agreements, and negotiations overran the original deadline of May 31st. Welcoming the outcome yesterday, the head of the group of unions, Mr Paddy Reilly, said all categories of workers had now accepted PACT, by majorities of two and three to one.

The company chairman, Mr Tadgh O'Donoghue, said the deal would allow the ESB accelerate its £2.1 billion investment in electricity networks throughout the State.

"The implementation of the agreement will enable us to increase the resources on the building of our networks, by the use of contractors," he said. "This is a crucially important development which will help us to achieve our plans to improve the electricity infrastructure."

Under the deal, workers will get an immediate £2,250 each, and increases in pay totalling 13 per cent. A further 3 per cent will be added in June 2002, subject to certain targets being met, and the remainder of the pay rise is accounted for by a profit-sharing scheme.

This will guarantee a 2 per cent increase, but workers can expect up to 5 per cent depending on profits.

The agreement will add £30 million to the ESB's payroll costs this year, and the provision for voluntary redundancies is £200 million.

Mr Reilly said the unions were "very happy to have delivered their part of the agreement to transform the ESB". They would now be free to concentrate on outstanding issues from the tripartite agreement reached between workers, management and the Government in 1999, he added.

The leader of the company's negotiating team, Mr Padraig McManus, praised the more than 200 trade union representatives and managers who took part in the negotiations. "Today's result is a testament to their hard work," he said.

Contrary to expectations, most workers at the company concluded agreements before the May 31st deadline, when the outstanding issues involved 330 staff in retail areas. The ESB board agreed to extend the deadline for balloting to July 13th while the issues were referred to the joint industrial council, on which management and unions are represented.

The last restructuring deal in the ESB was in 1996 and also involved 2,000 redundancies, in return for a 6 per cent pay deal.