THE ESB is seeking to cut 1,000 jobs and reduce overtime and other payments to staff in an effort to cut €140 million from its wage bill.
Proposals negotiated by the State energy company with the four unions that represent its workers call for a reduction in staff numbers of 1,000 through a mix of voluntary redundancy and retirement between now and 2015.
The company is seeking 703 voluntary redundancies and intends not to replace 294 workers due to retire between this year and 2015. Staff numbers will be cut to a total of 5,700 from 6,700.
The company hopes the job reductions will save €83.6 million a year. It wants to save a further €56.4 million through measures such as cutting overtime, ending performance-related pay for staff, managers and executives, and reducing subsistence payments.
The ESB’s group of unions, made up of Unite, the ESB Officers’ Association, TEEU and Siptu, will ballot members on the package on March 30th after first holding a series of meetings with workers around the State to debate its proposals.
Head of the group of unions Brendan Ogle said it would not be making any recommendation to members to either accept or reject the plan.
Union leaders are not going to back the plan explicitly as they believe the company did not go far enough in relation to pay at its highest levels.
“There were a number of issues that we had on the table in relation to pay at the very top of the company and we did not make as much progress on them as we would have liked,” Mr Ogle said.
He added that if more progress had been made on this issue, the unions would have been willing to recommend the deal, which they otherwise believe is the best negotiated outcome to the company’s efforts to save €140 million.
The ESB is seeking 250 voluntary redundancies from its power plants, which employ 1,000 people and 240 from its networks business, which employs 3,000 people. The remaining 210 will come from other divisions.
The €140 million in cuts that the company is seeking amounts to 20 per cent of its €700 million payroll cost. Mr Ogle said it would be a significant saving if staff agreed to it.
