The chief executive of the ESB, Mr Ken O'Hara, is expected to tell a special board meeting tomorrow that he is going to make industrial relations his priority over the next few months.
The meeting was originally called to discuss the ESB's multi-million pound bid for the G8 group of Polish power transmission companies, but the deadlock between unions and management will dominate discussions.
Negotiations needed to prepare the ESB for a fully competitive market were supposed to conclude by last September. So far, no agreements have been concluded under the Programme of Action for Competitiveness and Transparency (PACT).
The first PACT deal, which gave 18.5 per cent to 2,500 network technicians in return for new work practices, was overwhelmingly rejected last month. Now the company's second-largest union, the ESB Officials' As sociation, is revising a 16.5 per cent pay claim lodged last year to well over 20 per cent.
The ESBOA general secretary, Mr Willie Cremins, said yesterday that besides the network technician ballot, "claims by teachers, awards to TDs and senior civil servants and the strength of wage pressure in the economy generally have led the union to revise its wage claim upwards".
Six hundred of the 2,000 redundancies being sought under the PACT are among his members. There is also a bitter dispute brewing between SIPTU and the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union over who should represent some network technicians in new negotiations on their claim. An identical row was resolved last autumn just hours before it was due to cause power cuts.
Unions and management believe there is an urgent need to review industrial relations, that stronger, more centralised structures are needed which allow management negotiators to answer directly to the chief executive rather than the heads of the three ESB business units.
This would also reduce the danger of "catch-up" claims emerging, as one set of local negotiators wins bigger increases than others.
Full competition is due in the Irish energy market by early 2005. This is one reason why the ESB board is meeting, to confirm its bid for the Polish network and establish a stronger presence on the Continent.
The Government's belated decision to introduce legislation which will enable the company to allocate 5 per cent of the ESB to its workforce in warrants is intended to clear the way for further talks under the PACT.
The shares were supposed to have been allocated in 1998. Even if the legislation is passed, as promised, by Easter, there is no guarantee it will make conclusion of the PACT any easier.