Employer groups to meet on electrician proposals

ELECTRICIAN EMPLOYER bodies are to meet today to discuss whether to accept a Labour Court recommendation that electricians would receive a 4.9 per cent pay increase.

Thousands of electricians returned to work and hundreds of construction sites reopened yesterday after a week-long strike.

The Electrical Contractors Association, which represents about 50 major contractors, is expected to meet this afternoon. It is to decide on the court’s non-binding proposal that 10,500 electricians receive the 2.5 per cent increase from September 1st and another 2.4 per cent on January 1st, 2010.

The executive council of the Association of Electrical Contractors Ireland (AECI), which represents some 300 small and medium-sized contractors, hopes to meet today to prepare documents for its members and to decide on how to ballot them.

Chris Lundy, of the AECI, said it may have to hold a general meeting of members to explain the intricacies of the Labour Court recommendation. If held, such a meeting would be held tomorrow or Thursday at the earliest, he said, otherwise the organisation would aim to conduct a ballot before the builders’ holidays begin on Friday.

“There is no doubt there will be mixed feelings out there,” Mr Lundy said. The AECI would need a “big majority of responses” from members, he said.

The TEEU executive council is due to meet on Thursday by which time the union hopes to have the employers’ response. However if either of the employers’ bodies rejects the recommendation, the TEEU says the dispute would be reactivated after the holidays.

The Labour Court’s recommendations include an adherence by all parties to the registered employment agreement and a review of the agreement within four months.