Congress statement on ESB dispute
21 Sep 2005
A meeting took place this evening at which Mick O Reilly Regional Secretary of the ATGWU, Owen Wills General Secretary of the TEEU and Jack O'Connor the General President of SIPTU, met with the President and General Secretary of Congress, to review and resolve the current ESB dispute.
It was noted that the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) has now clarified the parameters of a new expenditure programme for ESB Networks for the period 2006 to 2010.
The General Secretary advised the meeting that he had confirmed with ESB management that a programme of meetings commencing on October 12, 2005 can take place with the ESB unions to negotiate and arrive at a new agreement on how this new expenditure programme should be resourced into the future and the extent of the involvement of contractors in it.
In these circumstances the meeting proposed that ATGWU members should return to work and continue to operate the provisions of the PACT agreement until it is replaced by a new agreement.
The meeting also agreed upon the urgent imperative of restoring good relations between all unions in the ESB.
ends