MIDDLE managers are one of the main stumbling blocks to the partnership approach and getting information from them is like "drawing teeth", a conference on worker participation was told in Dublin this week.

The general secretary of the ESB Officials Association, Mr Willie Cremins also gave middle management a dressing down. He said structures in organisations were hierarchical and control of information was often seen as a matter of status.

Mr Cremins dismissed the old argument of problems of confidentiality in giving worker directors sensitive information. ESB chief executive Mr Joe Moran said he couldn't think of a time commercially sensitive information had ever been leaked. "People's primary interest as employees is in protecting the company," he said.