THE ESB group of unions has finally "signed off" for the £270 million restructuring deal at the company. This means that they endorse its overall terms.
Arrangements to ballot the 9,400 strong workforce are due to be in place before the end of the month and a result is expected by April 12th.
The unions, which had been expected to "sign off" in January, finally did so at a meeting yesterday morning. SIPTU, which has had reservations about the deal, is understood to be still unhappy.
Some of the other unions continue to have reservations about aspects of the Cost and Competitiveness Review, but all signed the document on the basis that any outstanding queries would be adequately dealt with in writing by the company or by the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications.
There were some last-minute "concerns about the terms under which the ESB would be allowed to compete for power generation contracts, particularly the construction of any new peat fired stations, but these appear to have been sorted out. The ballot of the workforce will probably begin in the last week in March
The employees are being asked to accept 2,000 redundancies. Those remaining will receive the equivalent of an 8 per cent pay rise over and above the increases due under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work, plus a 5 per cent shareholding in the ESB, in return for radical work changes.
The changes are expected to generate payroll savings of £80 million a year, thus financing the costs of the CCR and the £210 million redundancy package. However, the costings have been questioned by the Fianna Fail spokesman on Energy, Mr Seamus Brennan.