TRADE union leaders and senior company managers will be examining closely how two comparatively minor rows escalated into the most serious dispute in the ESB for eight years.
The root of the problem was disciplinary action taken against two fitters, one a member of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union, the other belonging to the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union, at Tarbert power station in November 1996.
Both had left the plant for a drink during working hours and had an altercation with supervisory staff on their return. They were each issued with a final warning and had incremental pay increases stopped.
Last December, the men put an unofficial picket on Tarbert, protesting over the final warning and that the loss of one increment still stood. Other fitters supported them, leading to the indefinite deferral of a £5 million overhaul. The shop stewards again found themselves "sent home on full pay" under the ESB's 1975 disciplinary agreement.
This agreement is invoked as frequently by ESB unions as management to deal with problems. Both men were so worried that they travelled to Athlone last month to explain their case to the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke.
Then, last Monday, a SIPTU shop steward fell foul of management in a row over the night opening of a workshop and stores. He too was "sent home on full pay" and his colleagues reacted with unofficial pickets. By Tuesday, almost the entire workforce, including fitters in the AEEU and TEEU, refused to pass the SIPTU pickets.
The ESB unions made no secret of their concern that the dispute could spread. PowerGen is the business unit within the ESB which has had to adapt most to the threat of competition.
Unfortunately, its managers tend to be engineers who lack training or experience in human resource management or industrial relations. Similarly, PowerGen workers were among those most resistant to change.
When the revolutionary partnership agreement, the Cost and Competitiveness Review, was voted through two years ago, it was only by the tightest of margins within some PowerGen sections.
Ms O'Rourke called on her special adviser on deregulation in the public sector, Mr Phil Flynn, to intervene. As a former general secretary of IMPACT and president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, he had the industrial and business background to address the issues.
By Tuesday night he had proposed a simple resolution. Essentially, all the workers involved in the unofficial action, including the suspended shop steward, would return to work, and the allegations against the shop steward would be investigated urgently.
SIPTU's energy branch secretary, Mr Tony Dunne, succeeded in having the proposals accepted by Wednesday lunchtime. His members returned to work, but were out again within 30 minutes. Fitters who had respected the SIPTU picket took their own unofficial action in support of the shop stewards in Tarbert.
Three local factors helped to spread the dispute. The first was that the new manager at Moneypoint had previously managed Tarbert and had been involved in the disciplinary procedures against the fitters there.
The second was that, by chance, the next stage of the disciplinary procedures against the Tarbert men was to begin in Listowel that morning. The third was that the fitters have an effective rank-and-file organisation which swung into action.
The fitters demanded that their colleagues at Tarbert be reinstated in the same way as the SIPTU shop steward at Moneypoint, although the circumstances were different. Timing was everything.
A meeting between the ESB group of unions and the company failed to achieve a breakthrough. Trying to deal with disparate elements in Tarbert, Listowel and Money point did not help.
The company had little room for manoeuvre. The alternative to insisting on adhering to procedure was anarchy, as far as it was concerned. But the risk of power cuts was serious. Much of the ESB's plant is old and in need of regular overhaul. Moneypoint is the largest single unit and was only kept on line by using its emergency back-up oil supply.
On Thursday morning, the national fitters' committee placed pickets on the State's 15 major power plants and only the decision of shiftworkers, members of SIPTU and the ATGWU, at these stations to work normally on union instruction kept the national grid ticking over.
Once more Mr Flynn had to find a solution. He convened talks at ESB headquarters at 8 p.m. on Thursday and kept them there until 8.30 a.m. In the end, he decided to issue his own terms.
There was bitter medicine for both sides. The unions were criticised for their unofficial action and told to re-enter procedures. The management was told it had kept the Tarbert shop stewards under disciplinary procedures for an "inordinate" time and was told to finalise the process or return them to duty by March 22nd.
It remains to be seen if the formula will work. Ms O'Rourke will meet ESB unions and management next week. With competition from other energy suppliers imminent, she had good advice for both sides yesterday: "There is never going to be change without tears. But within that change there are great opportunities."
It remains to be seen if the tears caused by the old ways of doing business in PowerGen blind the protagonists to the opportunities.
There were important lessons to be learned from the ESB dispute, the Tanaiste said yesterday.
Ms Harney warned: "We can't have a situation where a dispute in a company, be it a private company or a public one, can literally bring the whole country to a standstill." No company should be allowed to hold the State to ransom, she said.