The exclusion of workers from Golden Pages and other Telecom Eireann subsidiary companies from the share ownership scheme could cost up to £1 billion (€1.3 billion), a lawyer involved in the case claimed yesterday. Mr Peter McDonnell said Telecom Eireann was misleading potential shareholders by not making provision for such losses.

But Telecom Eireann dismissed the figure as misleading and said it had "unequivocal legal advice" that the legal action being taken by Golden Pages staff in support of their demand for shares was without merit. The company added that it was considering legal action because of "the manner in which this case is being conducted". Mr McDonnell, who is pursuing a High Court action against Telecom Eireann on behalf of 163 Golden Pages staff, said it would be "morally and legally wrong" for them to be excluded. Eirean owns a majority stake in Golden Pages, but its workers did not negotiate any role for themselves in the scheme.

Yesterday, Golden Pages staff said only a minority of workers at the subsidiary were members of a trade union and they "just sat back and assumed" that they would be part of the deal. Telecom negotiated the ESOP only with workers at wholly-owned subsidiaries.