The union representing striking ESB network technicians has called on its members to return to work after accepting recommendations made last night by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
The move comes after representatives of the three ESB unions have recommended a return to work by members of the ATGWU following a meeting at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) headquarters last night.
The union said it would be writing to the ESB to confirm the dispute was over. The ATGWU said the technicians would be returning to work at 8am tomorrow.
Following the emergency meeting of the ATGWU technicians tonight, Brendan Ogle, the regional industrial organiser of the union, said: "The ICTU document contains wording that gives the Network Technicians Association recourse to negotiations that were not on offer up to now, on a new re-sourcing agreement and on foot of that we inform ESB management by letter of our return to work."
The ATGWU said it had also agreed with apprentice members how their issues will be dealt with going forward. The union's national executive met in an emergency meeting in Dublin this evening to discuss an end to the dispute.
Up to 1,200 ATGWU members have been on strike for the past two days over the role of outside contractors in the company's €3.6 billion network renewal programme.
Last night the union's leader, Mr Mick O'Reilly, endorsed a call for his members to return to work after clarifications were secured by Ictu general secretary Mr David Begg.
The development was announced after a two-hour meeting at Ictu's office in Dublin at which Mr Begg announced that ESB management had confirmed negotiations on how the company's expenditure programme should be resourced, and the extent to which contractors would be involved, could now take place.
A programme of meetings with unions at the company could begin on October 12th, he told the three union leaders. "In these circumstances the meeting proposed that ATGWU members should return to work and continue to operate the provisions of the Pact agreement until it is replaced by a new agreement."
The Pact is a partnership agreement negotiated at the ESB in 2001 and which was due to run until July 2004. Under the deal unions had agreed to the use of external contactors in the ESB's network renewal programme, but the ATGWU argued the Pact was no longer in place.
About 1,700 external contractors are at present employed by ESB Networks, alongside some 2,200 staff technicians. More than half of these are represented by the ATGWU and most of the remainder by the TEEU, while a small number are in Siptu.