The corporate governance of the Eircom Employee Share Ownership Trust (ESOT) is to be reviewed by outside consultants.
Among the issues to be covered will the dual role of the chairman of the trust, Mr Con Scanlon, who is also Eircom's deputy chairman.
The trust owns just under 30 per cent of the company on behalf of current and former employees.
An ESOT spokesman said the review - which will be carried out by accountants Farrell Grant Sparks and UK-based lawyers Ashurst - follows a number of significant corporate developments.
These include the return to the stock market of Eircom after two years in private ownership and the departure of the manager of the ESOT, Mr Maoilíosa Ó Cúlacháin, to pursue other interests.
He said everything would be examined, including Mr Scanlon's role, but said that was not the focus of the review.
"It is good practice to review the trustees at certain junctures," he said, adding that a number of reviews had been carried out in the past following significant corporate events.
Last week, Mr Scanlon announced he was to step down as secretary general of the Communications Workers' Union.
He received remuneration in the region of €1.9 million in respect of his role as deputy chairman of Eircom. He also received shares worth almost €600,000 in the company when it returned to the market last month.
In addition, a special pension scheme was created in the run up to the flotation to facilitate Mr Scanlon resigning as an Eircom employee because of potential conflicts of interest.
The pension is worth €1 million over 10 years and includes an upfront lump sum payment of €230,000. His salary as deputy chairman is €106,000.
Mr Scanlon is one of four trustees of the ESOT nominated by the Eircom Union Coalition. The other three - Mr James O'Connor, Mr Jerome Barrett and Mr Eugene Quinn - are employees of the company, according to the spokesman.
There are two company nominees, Mr Cathal Magee and Mr Peter Lynch, who are also directors of Eircom.
Mr Magee is the commercial director of the company, while Mr Lynch is the finance director. Both men received shares worth more than €1 million as part of the flotation.
Their dual roles are also expected to fall within the scope of the corporate governance review.
The seventh nominee is Mr David Beattie, a partner with O'Donnell Sweeney solicitors.
Mr Scanlon is one of two directors of Eircom nominated by the ESOT to the board of Eircom. The other is Mr John Conroy, the chief executive of Merrion Capital.
Mr Scanlon said last week that, even though he was stepping down as secretary general of the union, he intended to stay on as chairman of the ESOT. This would effectively ensure that he retains his €106,000 a year deputy chairmanship of Eircom.
