The ESB group of unions has today defended the 3.5 pay increase awarded to workers at the company last November.
Yesterday, the Minister for Energy, Eamon Ryan said the ESB and its unions should agree a new productivity deal to compensate for the pay rise. Green Party colleague and Minister for the Environment John Gormley said there was “widespread concern” in Government over the pay rises.
Speaking on Morning Ireland, however, David Naughton, secretary of the ESB group of unions, said he did not think workers in the ESB were "open to be cajoled" into giving up the increase.
“There was a national wage round signed up by all the social partners . . . the increase was due last November, it was passed in November, December, but nobody seemed to have an issue with it until January, beginning of February, so it appears the Government, Mr Gormley, and the commentators are attempting to play catch-up”
“ESB is not the only company paying the money. Other profitable companies pay the money, it’s merely honouring the national wage agreement,” Mr Naughton said.
“The optics of it may not suit some people, but I presume . . . the Government, you would imagine, will deal with the practicalities rather than the optics. The increase has been applied as agreed, and the matter is closed as far as the workers are concerned.”
Mr Naughton said the average wage for the ESB workers was €50,000 to €60,000.
“The opportunity was there for Government in the talks over the last couple of days to deal with the trade unions to agree something that was across the board, if necessary . . . they failed to do that.
“It’s not Mr Gormley’s area . . . if Mr Gormley wished to make a contribution, I’d say his best contribution would be to try and clear the way on the range of projects that are essential for the good of the country, which is his area of responsibility . . . rather than have a go at ESB workers.”
Yesterday, Mr Gormley told RTÉ's News At Oneprogramme: "I think that there is widespread concern in Government. It is seen as inappropriate and it is seen as sending the wrong signal at this time."
Unite, the biggest trade union representing workers at the ESB, has also condemned Mr Gormley’s comments.
“The ESB made in excess of €500 million in profit last year,” said Unite Regional Organiser Brendan Ogle. “Over €150 million of that was paid to Government through its dividend. Like any other company, it is bound by the national agreement struck by his own government to pay an increase of 3.5 per cent to the workers who have contributed to that.
“Electricity prices are disgracefully high, but that has nothing to do with staff costs. Staff costs represent 16 per cent of the ESB’s operating costs.”
Mr Ogle said the reason for high electricity prices was “misguided Government policy to distort prices, to create a false competitive market and in the long run to use this as a control on prices”.
“Rather than scapegoating workers, Mr Gormley and his colleagues should be forcing an abandonment of this policy and allow ESB to bring prices down to their natural level,” he said.
Mr Ogle said it was bizarre the Government was attacking an efficient and profitable ESB at a time when the banks were being mismanaged and developers have mortgaged the country “to the hilt for a lifetime”.
“It is time for cool heads Minister Gormley. Your anger is misplaced. We do not want or need an ‘angry’ Government, attacking workers,” Mr Ogle said.
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union said attacks on ESB workers by ministers were “the latest step in a deliberate strategy of making ordinary working people pay for the economic crisis created by over a decade of mismanagement of our economy”.
“The depiction of ESB workers as greedy, uncaring and somehow responsible for the crisis we are in says more about the bankruptcy of Government policies than the realities ordinary working people are facing”, TEEU general secretary designate Eamon Devoy said today.
“We delivered pay moderation and industrial peace for over 20 years through the social partnership process to develop a thriving economy but at the first signs of trouble some Government ministers seem happy to walk away from the process, along with Ibec and the CIF.
“Dermot Ahern and John Gormley in particular seem intent on following the pro-employer agenda of driving down pay and conditions as the easiest way out of the crisis. It started with a witch hunt against public servants . . . now the attack has moved on to ESB workers," Mr Devoy said.
“The tactics of Fianna Fail, the PDs and big business are to be expected, but it is disappointing to see the Greens lend themselves to such a cheap, self-destructive agenda,” Mr Devoy added.
Under social partnership rules, the ESB - although wholly State-owned - is regarded as a private operation. A three-month pay pause for private sector workers agreed in last year’s social partnership deal ended on November 1st last year, leaving 3.5 per cent due.
The pay rise was approved by the ESB’s board in December and backdated to November, as happened in 50 private sector companies.
In a statement today, Simon Coveney TD, Fine Gael's energy spokesman, said unless the pay decision was overturned immediately, “CEO Padraig McManus must come before the Oireachtas committee to explain just why this ridiculous decision was made”.
“Pay increases at the ESB are ridiculous, unjustified and management must come before the Oireachtas to explain just why on earth 3.5 per cent increases have been granted at this time.
“This is a time when everybody in the country is trying to pull together so giving 4,000 workers a huge pay hike is completely inexcusable,” Mr Coveney said.
