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UNIONS AT ESB have called on management to confirm whether there are any plans to put workers on ‘protective notice’ as the dispute over the company’s pension scheme continues.
It follows a statement yesterday from employers’ group Ibec that the threatened industrial action could lead to “thousands of workers being put on protective notice and losing income in the run up to Christmas”.
Notice of industrial action was served on management yesterday, and the action is due to begin on 16 December. Customers have been told to expect power outages as a result.
Ibec head of industrial relations Maeve McElwee, who is advising companies on how to manage any disruption, said in a statement yesterday that employers “who have reserved the right to place employees on unpaid lay-off or short-time working in their contracts of employment may utilise this clause”.
“Otherwise, agreement should be sought from the employees to place them on these forms of temporary work patterns.
“There may be a requirement to redeploy staff from one part of the business to another to maintain core business operations, where certain sites or stores may still be able to operate.
In a letter sent to management, which was also released to the media this morning, ESB Union Group Secretary Brendan Ogle asks the company’s management to confirm that “ESB has no plans to put its workers on protective notice”.
He warns: “If you have it is important unions are aware, and can consider this in our current, already difficult dialogue”.
An ESB spokesperson told TheJournal.ie they had “no comment to make” on the issue.
Dispute
The row centres on a €1.6 billion deficit in the semi-state company’s pension scheme. Workers believe that the ESB has breached a 2010 agreement.
Following the conclusion of talks on Thursday, both sides said significant differences still remained between the parties.
No intervention from a third party – such as the Labour Relations Commission – has been planned as yet.
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I think you should put IAB into the equation. I don’t recall reading on the Journal about last week’s news of the Belgian data protection supervisory authority (equivalent of the DPC) and their decision. It should be a wake up call. There is significant lobbying giving wrong advice such as allowing ‘legitimate interest’ on cookies. Cookie banner vendors not able to sell compliant products. Also, there is a large amount of personal data collected by google and sent outside the EU on most websites, used for google surveillance for ‘advertising’. A lot of enforcement could be sorted quickly.
AI is where tight regulations need to be implemented. I fear that AI will get so powerful, we will go past the point of rescue if it is not regulated soon.
@James Beattie: skynet
@James Beattie: if the GDPR was enforced, a lot would be covered. At present, before AI kicks in, there is massive amount of data unlawfully collected that no one has the guts to say to FB it should be deleted. Then there is profiling and transparency. Enforcement of these would help significantly.
The push is towards online regulation and silencing anyone that does not stick to the prevailing definition of “Good Information”, some people calling for it genuinely believe it will be a positive outcome, those people lack imagination.
The idea of defining if current technological development is good or bad is pointless, its how its used that defines that in practice, currently how profit driven corporations decide to use the data is the concern, but an AI is likely to make decisions based on criteria than we can’t even imagine, much less control.
Corporations hoping to harness its power to profit, universally lack the humility to realise they can’t control, coerce or contain a true AI, that could become sentient and decide the fate of humanity in a nanosecond.
@David Van-Standen: agree Dave
“The company and its flagship social network have been central to the building of the modern internet” – You are joking, right? Unless to you modern internet is synonymous with social media.
I haven’t used Facebook in nearly a decade, and proud of it!
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