ESB unions have given a guarded welcome to the Government's Bill to award 5 per cent of the company to the workforce. The Cabinet approved legislation to break the deadlock that has developed at the ESB on the introduction of changes needed to meet competition and the rapidly growing demand for energy.

The shareholding will initially be in the form of warrants, which workers will be able to exchange for shares when the ESB becomes a plc in 2002. It will be based on the current £1.4 billion(€1.78 million) net value of the company and this will be worth more than £8,000 to each employee.

Meanwhile, further trouble is looming because of a long standing inter-union dispute between the ATGWU and SIPTU over negotiating rights for network technicians. SIPTU has sought a meeting with the company to discuss the issue. Branch secretary Mr Tony Dunne says feeling is running as high as last year when the company came within hours of power cuts because of the same dispute. A resolution was brokered by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions but the unions now have different interpretations of the peace formula.

The shares issue became an urgent problem after 2,500 network technicians rejected a radical change plan last month. In 1996 ESB workers accepted 2,000 redundancies, and greater flexibility in the workplace, on the basis that they would receive a 5 per cent shareholding by 1998.

However the company discovered it needed new legislation to change the ESB from a statutory corporation to a plc to do so. This is not planned for another year, but the increasingly difficult industrial relations situation requires immediate action.

After the network technician agreement was rejected the ESB group of unions decided no further proposals would be put to ballot until the shareholding problem was resolved. Last night the chairman of the group Mr Denis Blanch welcomed the Government decision to pass legislation before the Easter recess.

It is still unclear how Revenue Commissioners's regulations restricting retrospective tax relief on employee share ownership schemes to 18 months will affect ESB workers. Because of this at least 1,000 ESB employees who left the company under the 1996 agreement may lose out on the share deal.

However last night the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, gave a commitment that "no one will lose out. There will be amending legislation in the Finance Bill if necessary to ensure that".