In early autumn 2002, workers at a defunct ESB power generating station at Rhode, Co Offaly, are set to enter a talks process aimed at resolving their claim for enhanced redundancy terms. The talks had been stalled due to separate concerns expressed by the 100 workers there in relation to exposure, or potential exposure, to asbestos.
Ireland's state-owned electricity company, ESB, is set to move ahead with plans to close one of its six uneconomic peat-fired power stations after workers there rescinded in August 2002 an earlier decision not to engage in talks over redundancy terms.
In early autumn 2002, workers at a defunct ESB power generating station at Rhode, Co Offaly, are set to enter a talks process aimed at resolving their claim for enhanced redundancy terms. The talks had been stalled due to separate concerns expressed by the 100 workers there in relation to exposure, or potential exposure, to asbestos.
The board of the state-owned electricity company decided earlier in 2002 that the plant, one of six uneconomic peat-fired power generation stations earmarked for closure, should be closed by the end of September 2002. In July 2001, the company’s internal dispute-resolution mechanism, the ESB Joint Industrial Council (JIC), had recommended that negotiations on the winding down of the generating station should lead to an 'orderly closure' by the end of September 2002. The JIC was ruling on a demand by the workers that the asbestos issue should be dealt with prior to any final redundancy deal. A small number of the Rhode employees have contracted a condition known as pleural plaque. However, those who have not become ill also want compensation for anxiety.
The JIC, however, agreed with legal advice received separately by both the company and the ESB’s powerful group of trade unions. This was to the effect that any claim in regard to asbestos exposure should be dealt with within a legal framework, and not within the industrial relations system. Initially, the ESB group of unions failed to secure the backing of the Rhode workers for the JIC’s recommendation. In early August 2002, however, the unions finally succeeded in persuading them to reverse their earlier decision and agree to enter formal talks.
Whatever redundancy deal is finally concluded at Rhode is likely to track the special 'decommissioning' package secured by workers at the now closed Ferbane power plant in November 2001. One of the key elements of the special Ferbane agreement was that any worker opting for voluntary severance received a 10-month 'retainer' on top of the basic severance plan on the basis of being 'available' during the shutdown period.
Effectively, this means that the Ferbane deal is acting as a sort of informal 'benchmark' for workers at the other six stations earmarked for closure. Apart from the special payment at Ferbane, the basic severance deal in ESB comes under the company's current three-year management/union partnership agreement - the Programme for Competitiveness and Transformation (PACT) - agreed in July 2001. PACT, which includes broad agreement on the closure of inefficient stations, allows for up to 2,000 voluntary redundancies.
The basic severance package under PACT includes a lump-sum payment based on one year’s salary, plus half pay between the age of 48 to 60. Formal retirement begins at the age of 60.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2002), ESB plant to close, article.
