ESB staff back plan to save €140m a year

ESB WORKERS have voted in favour of a €140 million a year savings plan that includes cutting 1,000 jobs and reductions in overtime and other payments.

The State-owned energy group – which employs more than 7,000 – confirmed yesterday that a majority of staff backed the plan in a company-wide ballot carried out at the end of last month.

The plan calls for 703 voluntary redundancies and also provides that the company will not replace 294 staff due to retire between now and 2015. 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 said yesterday that the payroll cuts and a wider savings plan would reduce its cost base by €280 million by 2015.

The company’s executive director, sustainability and human resources, John Campion, welcomed the ballot’s result yesterday. “This will ensure that the company can continue to invest in national critical infrastructure while remaining competitive in electricity and gas markets,” Mr Campion said.

The head of the company’s group of unions, Brendan Ogle, said the vote was “appropriate” in the current economic climate.

The group of unions, made up of Unite, the ESB Officers’ Association, the Technical Electrical and Engineering Union and Siptu, negotiated the package with management over a period of months beginning last year.

Last month Mr Ogle said that the group of unions was not going to make any recommendation to members to accept or reject the plan, but would put it to workers as the best possible result that could be achieved through negotiation alone.

The group of unions held a series of 11 meetings with members around the State to discuss the plan with them last month.

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 redundancies 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. The ESB competes with fellow State company, An Bord Gáis and a number of private sector players in the electricity and gas markets.