Bord Gais talks over staff stake

TALKS between Bord Gais unions and management will kick off next week to establish ground rules for workers getting a stake in the state gas company, in return for productivity improvements.

But unions face a difficult task in their push for a 5% shareholding that could be worth more than €50 million, or €70,000 per employee.

SIPTU, which represents 400 of the 700 staff in the company, has joined forces with the TEEU and Amicus to get a deal similar to that hammered out at ESB, where staff hold a 4.9% stake.

The nature of Bord Gais’s business means it has fewer employees relative to its overall value than the ESB or other utilities.

Giving away 5% to an Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) would result in the stake being split among a much smaller group, leading to a bigger payout per head and the potential for industrial unrest in other public sector companies, where less generous terms have been agreed with workers. Unions have lobbied for an ESOP arrangement at Bord Gais since the late 1990s and expect to trade concessions over new work practices and cost savings in return for a shareholding in the company.

They have hired leading Dublin corporate financier and former government adviser Greg Sparks, as well as former Irish Congress of Trade Unions official Stephen McCarthy, to help them.

Bord Gais management has taken on financial services firm KPMG to act as consultants during the negotiations, which are expected to take at least three months. Sources said the talks marked the start of a process to set out the scope for an ESOP, but this process was still at a “very early” stage.

An ESOP deal would not trigger a windfall similar to that enjoyed by workers in Eircom when the former state telecoms company floated on the stock exchange in 1999.

Bord Gais is considered unlikely to leave state hands for the foreseeable future and is at the back of the queue of companies that the government would consider suitable for sale.

The negative experience of the Eircom sale, which critics said saw the government lose control over vital infrastructure, has put the possible sale of other asset-intensive state companies on the back burner, according to industry observers.

The company reported profits of €103m last year, which was a fall of 9.2%. Its dividend to the Exchequer, its ultimate shareholder, fell from €21.7m to €9.7m.