Payments of up to £2,000 a head have been agreed for key staff to work or be on call through the millennium holiday at Eircom and AIB. Meanwhile talks were continuing late yesterday at the Labour Relations Commission on the claim by health service workers for £100 an hour for working on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Many of the 7,000 employed in the private security industry who are expected to work over the holiday will receive amounts from £10 and £36 an hour as the result of a guideline agreement reached with SIPTU. The president of the Irish Security Industry Association, Mr Grahame Pickett, welcomed the agreement, saying the issue of special payments had been of great concern.
At least 300 employees at Eircom are expected to be on duty, including telephonists, repair crews and information technology staff. The AIB package is similar to deals already agreed for staff at Bank of Ireland and Ulster Bank.
The general secretary of the Irish Bank Officials Association, Mr Ciaran Ryan, said the deal with AIB meant that about 2,000 employees in the associated banks had the potential "to earn £2,000 for 2000".
Under the Eircom arrangements, staff working on December 31st and January 1st will be paid double the bank holiday rate, or four times the basic rate. Staff working January 2nd will receive treble the basic rate.
Staff who are on call will receive an allowance worth three times the normal on-call allowance of £46.31 for each 24 hour period. If they are called out they will be paid a minimum of four hours pay for working on December 31st or January 1st.
All staff on duty either day will receive "a recognition award voucher" worth £500 and will be paid in full for any overtime. Normally half of overtime worked must be taken in time off in lieu.
The general secretary of the Communications Workers Union, Mr Con Scanlon, welcomed the deal. It underlined the union approach that attendance should be kept to a minimum over the holiday and that any extra staff rostered should be working on a voluntary basis.
An Post information technology staff have rejected an offer of £100 to be on call, plus £300 for those required to work, over the holiday. At Allied Irish Banks, information technology staff on call will receive between £1,000 and £2,000. The payment includes cover for Y2K problems, as well as normal servicing of the system.
IT staff on call between 8 a.m. on December 31st and 8 a.m. on January 4th will receive £1,000. Staff obliged to work will receive additional amounts varying from £500 for working up to 8 p.m. on December 31st to £1,000 for working the following 12 hours. Staff working from 8 p.m. on January 1st until 8 a.m. on January 2nd will receive £500 and staff working between then and 8 a.m. on January 3rd will receive £250.
A novel deal for 100 SIPTU staff has been agreed at the Swiss-owned Novartis pharmaceutical plant in Cork. Employees rostered to work will receive normal public holiday rates plus one company share, worth about £1,200.
Such deals will whet the appetites of health service workers, but the Health Service Employers Agency has yet to make an offer in response to their £100 an hour claim. The case is expected to go to the Labour Court for a hearing next week if no progress is made at the LRC. Several other groups in the public service, including the Garda Representative Association, are marking progress in these talks.