No-confidence bid binned as Scanlon quits

COMMUNICATIONS Workers Union general secretary Con Scanlon would have had to face a motion of no-confidence at a meeting of the union’s executive had he not decided to resign.

Mr Scanlon, who is also deputy chairman of Eircom, announced his intention to resign two weeks ago and will leave the position of general secretary in three months’ time.

However, it emerged last night that members of the CWU 22-member executive had drafted a motion of no-confidence in Mr Scanlon and were informally seeking support for it in advance of the union’s biennial conference in Galway this week.

Although technically, as an employee of the union Mr Scanlon cannot be removed from his job through a motion of no-confidence, the move would have undermined his position and inevitably led to his resignation.

The motion, which was to be put to a meeting of the CWU national executive before the conference, was binned as soon as it became apparent that Mr Scanlon did not intend remaining in his position.

Mr Scanlon last night declined to comment on whether he was aware of the motion but denied he resigned for anything other than personal and family reasons.

However justified, misgivings had been raised in union circles in recent months after it emerged that Mr Scanlon received remuneration in the region of €1.9m for his role as deputy chairman of Eircom.

In addition to shares worth almost €600,000 as the company re-floated last month, a special pension scheme was created in the run-up to the flotation to facilitate Mr Scanlon’s resignation as an Eircom employee because of potential conflicts of interest.

The pension is worth €1 million over 10 years and includes an upfront lump sum payment of €230,000. His salary as deputy chairman is €106,000.

Although the high earnings were seen by some as a source of potential conflict and had been criticised by other unions, CWU sources last night also indicated that members were unhappy with the manner in which Mr Scanlon handled the An Post dispute.

That sentiment was aired at yesterday’s conference when Michael Langsdorf from the CWU’s Dublin postal delivery branch publicly criticised his leader.

“I’m delighted to see Con on the screen here this morning because I didn’t see him on the screen when we were in our dispute a couple of weeks ago. Con was not here when we needed him,” he said to supportive applause.

Mr Scanlon denied any of the issues surrounding his income had influenced his decision to resign.

“People have their own views on these things. From my point of view, the union put me into all these positions. The union asked me to perform all these roles,” he said stressing that he did not see a conflict between his dual roles.

“It was never a conflict. It was an advantage because I do not believe we’d have been as successful as we were if we hadn’t combined all the roles,” he said.

Asked whether he thought the controversy over his earnings would have left it difficult for him to continue in his job, Mr Scanlon said he still had much support within the union.

“I think things would have settled down but it would have always been there in the background. If people have views on it and it’s very hard to disabuse them of those views.

“Those things maybe don’t go away but I’ve got tremendous support from my own people,” he said.