THE ESB unions have unanimously agreed to endorse the £270 million restructuring deal designed to prepare Ireland's largest semi state company for single market competition.
The Cost and Competitiveness Review (CCR) is the largest and most complex industrial relations agreement negotiated in Ireland. It involves the workforce of 9,400 accepting 2,000 redundancies and radical changes in work practices.
SIPTU, which expressed reservations about the scale of proposed redundancies as early as last June, agreed to join the other unions in endorsing the CCR after five hours of talks yesterday. It had been feared the review endorsement might have to be by a majority vote, which would have gravely weakened its chances of acceptance by the workforce.
Unions and management will spend the next week finalising the details of the documentation that will go out for balloting. After that there will be a four week "communication period", when the unions will hold meetings throughout the State to explain the review to members. This will be followed by a two week ballot, so the result should be known by the end of March.
After the meeting the secretary of the ESB group of unions, Mr Paddy Reilly, described the unanimous vote as "the most important decision the group has ever, had to make. A lot of hard work went into it.
In a formal statement to the company the group confirmed that, "having considered the document entitled The Tripartite CCR Agreement, the group have endorsed the proposed agreement and have directed the group representatives on the steering commit tee to sign off the proposals order to conclude the business a this level."
As well as finalising the documentation to be sent to their members, the unions will be deciding their respective positions with regard to the contentious issue of the category awards. While the group is committed to "endorsing" the overall agreement, it is likely that SIPTU, and some other unions, will not be giving such a wholehearted recommendation to every aspect of the deal within the categories.
However, no one was dwelling on that problem last night, including ESB management, which said it welcomed the group's decision. The company expects to recoup the cost of the CCR over 4 1/2 years.