As the ESB enters critical talks with unions on pay, restructuring and the possibility of privatisation, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke, has appointed the company's longest-serving worker director as deputy chairman of the board.
Mr Joe La Cumbre is the first worker director to be appointed to such a position in a semi-state company and the move is being seen as a signal that the concerns of the workforce will be central to the debate on the company's future.
Mrs O'Rourke has requested a report from the board before the end of next month on its strategic options, including a strategic alliance and privatisation.
Mr La Cumbre's appointment also comes as the ESB Officers' Association serves strike notice for a l6.5 per cent increase. Restructuring talks with all the company's unions, which involve 2,000 proposed redundancies, are deadlocked.
Mr La Cumbre is a member of the ESB's third-largest union, the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, but regularly tops the worker director poll. He first came to public prominence as one of the leaders of the last major power strike in 1991. Since then he has played a major role in the debate on the company's future and has emerged as a force for change.
Mr La Cumbre said he was "delighted" to be appointed deputy chairman of the board. "If the ESB is to achieve the level of radical change it needs to survive, that change has to be radical on every front, including the question of a shareholding for the employees."
This reflects his belief that ESB workers must be offered a substantially larger share of the company than the 5 per cent offered in return for the last restructuring review in 1996. That provided £65 million a year. The company is now seeking savings worth another £155 million to prepare for a fully deregulated market by 2005.
Mr La Cumbre will replace Mr James Wrynne as deputy chairman. The latter has retired at the end of his term of office.