€4,000 sale payment for Bord Gáis staff

Bord Gáis Energy workers are expected to be offered an average once-off compensation payment of €4,000 depending on their length of service and involvement with the company’s employee share ownership plan, as part of the company’s sale terms.

It is understood that the company’s 450 employees will be briefed regarding their full terms and entitlements in a series of staff consultations this week. A staff ballot will then be held, the results of which should be known before the end of this month.

The €1.12bn sale of the retail division was announced in December, a fortnight after the Government had rejected bids on the basis of them being too low in value.

Post-completion — which is still likely to take a number of months, but is expected to take place within the first half of this year, once all regulatory and merger approvals have been received — Bord Gáis Energy is set to be split three ways, with British utility Centrica taking over the main electricity/gas business; London-based firm Icon Infrastructure taking control of the Northern Ireland-baseddistribution and retail business; and Canadian company Brookfield Renewables taking the group’s wind interests.

The basis of this week’s staff briefings will surround the detailed terms of the agreements made between Bord Gáis Energy management and the relevant unions, Siptu and Unite, at last month’s Labour Relations Commission talks. The winding down of the group’s employees share ownership plan is part of an ongoing process and is believed not to be part of the current briefings. Staff, among whom there exists “a high degree of anxiety”, according to one source, will be updated on pension benefits this week.