SOME 10,000 electricians are to ballot on industrial action in a row over the payment of a 5 per cent or €1.05 per hour increase due last April.
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) said yesterday that its members would vote on strike action against employers who refused to pay the increase.
The union said that if the ballot was carried, as it expected, pickets would be placed “at hundreds of workplaces throughout the country, including the ESB, manufacturing companies and construction sites where contract work is under way and employers are not prepared to pay the agreed rates”.
For many years, employer and union representatives have agreed pay and conditions for electricians in a legally binding registered employment agreement (REA) approved by the Labour Court.
However, an organisation representing contractors has argued that the agreement process, which led to the new increase, is unfair as it was not involved in the negotiations.
Earlier this month 460 named electrical contractors were granted a High Court injunction restraining the Labour Court from setting wages and conditions for electricians under the registered employment agreement system.
The case is to go before the High Court again next month.
Until the case is heard, the 5 per cent increase will not be paid to thousands of electricians.
In a statement yesterday, TEEU assistant general secretary Dan Miller said that the new body was not representative of the industry and the union would not allow it “to use its High Court challenge to the REA to delay payment of a badly needed cost of living increase to over 10,000 workers.
“This is a tried and tested system for setting pay and conditions in the electrical contracting industry for over 60 years.”
