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UNIONS AT THE Electricity Supply Board are to conduct a ballot for industrial action in a dispute over pension arrangements.
Shop stewards in Dublin yesterday afternoon voted unanimously to ballot.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie today, Brendan Ogle, the secretary of the ESB group of unions said a special meeting will be held on Thursday to co-ordinate the ballot.
Matter of weeks
He said this is not something that will take a long time. “We are not going to drag this out over a few months, this will be done in matter of weeks,” he said.
Mr Ogle said the ESB has changed the company’s pension scheme from a defined benefit system to a defined contribution scheme.
“These changes were made without any agreement or consultation being made with the unions. It’s important they realise that the implications of this is very, very serious,” he said.
He said that the ESB is the largest pension scheme in the state and the ESB Defined Benefit pension scheme has existed since 1942.
Pensions
Mr Ogle said “the ESB are refusing to engage in any discussions. This is an organisation that has hundreds of millions in profits each year,” he said, adding that the unions understood that many people around the country are having difficulties with their pensions, but said the difference with the ESB is that unlike other employers that have changed workers pensions from defined benefit system to a defined contribution schemes, the ESB are making huge profits.
He said that 200 shop stewards were balloted yesterday and all unanimously voted to ballot workers, which he said “if that is an indication of the feeling on the ground, I would think that workers will vote to strike, but that is up to the members”.
He said if the ballot to strike was passed it would result in a nationwide strike of all ESB workers.
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I used to work for the ESB and what them boys get away with is something serious.they wouldn’t know what a hard days work is.
Too good for them were ya nelly?
That’s well known, but the union abuses its power.
Sounds like Nelly was given the elbow.
Not necessarily! People are often aware of being given an easy time at work. I know of several meter readers who are paid extremely well for what they view as easy work.
No john wasn’t to good at all.to put it simply I didn’t have enough pull to get made full time.its all who you know in that place.the person who got me hired into the ESB in the first place retired.so when the chance came around for me to get a full time job I had no pull.80% of the people working in that place are there cos who you know.thats my experience
Ah fair enough. There’s plenty of those places about, sickeners
Ah I’m better of away from it.you could rot away in a place like that.good place to work if you have no ambition in life and want a cushy number though.
Used to work in ESB Aghada back in early 80,s and them shower used to be playing cards and sky I g off all the time they should have been working plus most companies are now gone to defined contribution pensions spreads the risk and makes them pay a bit more for there very generous pensions
I totally agree with you! I was a Sub-contractor on the Biggest Wind Farm in England, which is owned by ESB. the worst of all, was the way ESB treated the Sub-contractors. It is an absolute shame how they think they can get away with that kind of behaviour
I can relate to that having worked for An Post- virtually everyone in there was related to one another, it was a total cesspit of nepotism where eejits got promoted not because the were the best person for the job but because of family members ‘pulling’ for them.
Nelly, did you ever think of writing a novel?
Tony I av wud u b interested n reading it?
It would be called “life after the circus”
What you think tony?
Bitterness is an awful thing, and mixed with jealousy it’s even worse.
Hundreds of millions in profit?
Whatever about the pensions, that’s scandalous in this day and age.
Bring the price down you immoral thieving basterds!!
What’s the best way to deal with spoilt children?
ESB workers wages are completely out of sync with the rest of the economy. Their wages should be slashed and electric costs driven down to help ordinary people struggling and to also help attract foreign investment.
Just what we all need ! And anytime that shower want to hike up prices our caring government just nods !
Average salary of an ESB worker is €85,000. And people wonder why their electricity bills are so high, and why Irish price increases of 10% last year were the highest in Europe.
Isn’t Mr Ogle on record (though he later apologised) saying that the workers he represented at the ESB were ‘overpaid’ for their output?
Normally I wouldn’t agree with Joe, but he’s hit the nail on the head! This crowd can hold the country to ransom & kill the electricity grid in the morning if it took their fancy!! Crazy wages for glorified electricians!! (No problem with electricians in general by the way!!)
You’re right, Ogle admitted last year that even the ESB workers he represents would admit that they are underworked and overpaid. I’m kinda surprised that he is still employed by the union after coming out with that clanger (true as it is) but then again I shouldn’t really be as unions don’t believe in firing people for misconduct or general incompetence.
Joe what a stupid statement. ESB workers wages does not affect the price of electricity. Look at the other energy companies there electricity prices are the same price.
You are wrong they cannot turn off the lights like you think.
So if every worker in a Power Station walked out the system would run itself so would it!?! Ah right, I see!! Sure why do we even need these workers so!?!
Err guys, this is the esb
The esb means it’s esb networks, which is separate to electric Ireland.
Esb network install and read meters and operate as a wholesaler, they don’t supply electric directly to a customer as that’s done by electric Ireland, airtricity and bord gais.
I hope they manage to bring the ESB management to their senses. There is no rational reason to change the pension scheme whilst ESB is making a massive profit.
No rational reason at all? Oh my god…
There is a huge deficit. Who pays for this to be made up? Maybe I need to change electricity providers.
Bernard
That’s a particularly ignorant comment as the profits of the business have no relationship to the long term funding of the Pension Scheme. For the Unions to hold the ESB and the people of this State hostage over monies that do not belong to them I regard the behaviour as tantamount to piracy and an act of gross economic treason.
This is not the first time that this unthinking and dangerous activist has caused National sabotage.
Sheila the fact that you think changing your supplier from esb will have any effect shows how very little you know about the situation.
How does the esb pension deficit affect other providers, will they be going on strike to support the esb workers?
Because it’s ESB networks, they aren’t an electricity supplier.
Thanks Richard, I forgot that bit! Classic case of holding people to ransom (when you can), I guess.
Mr Ogle is a walking walk-out! He won’t be happy until he gets his strike. Holding the country hostage is pure evil and must be resisted at all costs.
Funny how he didn’t mention ESB borrowings of almost a billion
Brendan Ogle… Got his arse handed to him by Irish rail after his breakaway bully boys the ILDA tried to bring CIE to a standstill.
How does he manage to keep getting into these positions? Obviously doesn’t actually do any work, just goes around s**tstirring…..
With an average salary of €85,000 and pensions to match. The harsh economic realities that have affected everyone else has hardly put a dent in their bloated pay package. Mainly because they can put a gun to the publics head at any time and have always had an itchy trigger finger. They are just a bunch of cosseted bully boys.
Time to make sure the genny is working.
The esb are a disgrace and their greedy workers should be ashamed of themselves
Why? For fighting to protect their pensions? The pensions they were contractually obliged to contribute to? Yeah, I mean, how dare they.
Yeah, look at all those greedy workers making 30-40 grand a year…why dont you write a letter of complaint to the high ranking managment about the workers grossly over the top wages.
Pensions that their fund can no longer afford. Fund needs to cut it cloth. Like any pension fund, its the workers of today paying to support the workers of yesteryear; but these same workers are unlikely to receive the same T&Cs as the future workers will not be able to fund them. Only solution to curb the T&Cs of both current and pensioned members of the fund
Why can’t they put a surcharge on all our electricity bills, say, €20 per month. Yes, about €240 or €250 a year for each household in the state to re finance the pensions for these poor pets working in the esb.
No Mary it’s not unlikely as you put it. In fact that’s the root of the problem. I know in our depot there is at least one man on a supervisors scale for every lad on the ground. These supervisor scales where a carry over from old agreements and from redeployment throughout the company from the closure of the contracts section ie public lighting etc
It seems most of the DB pension funds are in a bad way. They need to start facing up to their problems and reduce payments. Current staff paying into the funds will have to take a haircut when they retire or else increase contributions to fund it.
The PS CS defined benefit scheme is on the same boat. Not run road left to kick the can down when it comes to pensions.
Most DB funds require a once off cash injection due to the new reserve requirements that the irish pensions board has imposed. Private and public companies are using this as an excuse because it makes it look these pensions are in trouble when they really aren’t. DC pensions are worthless and a basically just a big gamble on the stock exchange with no guarantee of a retirement income, a person who would be on a 25k pension and a lump sum under a DB scheme would be lucky if they got 10k and no lump sum under a DC scheme. Also under a lot of DB schemes, uour widow is entitled to half your pension when you die, widow gets nothing with a DC.
This hype about average wage is €85000 is o load of horse sh ite. I work for ESB and I can tell you I’m not taking home half of that. The reason the average is so high is the gap between the ordinary worker and management. If you have a worker on €30000 ( which most of the lads are) and a senior boss on €120000 well the average of that is €75000. Doesn’t mean the lads on the ground are taking home €75000 though . A lot of these comments stem from the same thing and that’s pure jealousy. We in ESB are just easy targets to the public. Oh and the price of electricity has nothing to do with ESB it’s electric ireland that has the supply business a totally desperate company altogether.
He’ll yeah. That’d mean that there’s one manager/senior executive for every one “man on the ground”. Unlikely.
Ken Mitchell, let’s get our facts right. Not all DC pensions are worthless. Widows may or may not receive a pension depending on the Ts & Cs.
Either way Ken, the funds aren’t there to meet the payments. Surely we can’t borrow to bail out the pension fund at ESB? Government set a precedent at AIB allowing cash they were given by taxpayer to top up fund but where will these cash injections come from? Of course DB is better than DC – but is needs to be paid for; DB = no risk. Companies can’t afford it. The funds need to cut their cloth. A minimum figure could be protected whilst capping payments above say 40k.
Some Senior managers will be on a lot more than 120k, more like double that. This distorts the ‘average’ figure and makes it look higher than many earn.
I’d imagine the figures they are using are gross, not take home pay.
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