Staff at the ESB have overwhelmingly voted in favour of industrial action, in their row over a €1.6 billion deficit in the company pension scheme.
Workers are opposing the company’s decision to pay a dividend of €78m to the State during the summer and a special dividend of €400m to the Exchequer, following the sale of certain assets, while this €1.6 billion deficit remains outstanding.
In total 87.5% of those balloted backed industrial action, with 12.5% opposed, from a turnout of 81%. In the Unite union, the vote in favour of strike action was as high as 89%. Four employees have already taken legal action against the company over this issue.
While unions have been invited to talks, same have not yet responded and no decision has been made as yet to serve notice of future industrial action.
While the ESB acknowledged the potentially serious impact on their customers, certainly hard struggling businesses will have little or no tolerance for any disruption to their electricity service, coming up to the Christmas season.
Irish Consumers pay on average €0.22518 per kWh for electricity, the 6th highest cost in Europe while the United Kingdom pay just €0.17078, France €0.14466, Greece €0.14073 and Poland €0.14618 only per kWh.
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