Some 1,200 network technicians at the ESB have returned to work today after a strike was formally called off last night at an emergency meeting of their union, the ATGWU.
The decision to end the action, the first major strike at the State electricity company since 1991, followed an intervention on Wednesday by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu).
Union official Brendan Ogle
The ESB confirmed that all 1,200, who had been on strike since Tuesday, had returned to their posts at stations across the country.
"That is what we are hearing here, everyone is back at work and there are no pickets. Everything is back on an even keel," a spokesman for the electricity company said.
"There is a meeting scheduled for October 12. That is when the three ESB unions will meet with management and discuss future re-sourcing needs."
An Ictu proposal recommending a return to work was accepted at the meeting in Dublin of the ATGWU's network technicians' executive committee.
The strike was over the extent to which external contractors are involved in a €3.6 billion programme to upgrade and modernise the company's network.
Union official Brendan Ogle said the Ictu document provided for negotiations on the issue that had not been on offer up to now.
"Having honoured the mandate of our members to fight for the jobs of all our members concerned, we will be writing to the ESB to confirm that this dispute is now over and that our members will return to work at 8am ," he said.
The strike had caused little disruption to ESB services but lead to an acrimonious row between the ATGWU and two other unions representing network technicians, the TEEU and Siptu.