ESB union threatens strike over board row

ESB unions last night threatened to strike over an increasingly bitter dispute involving board membership at the company.

The dispute is about the position of ESB deputy chairman and Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) executive member Joe LaCumbre on the board of the company.

Mr LaCumbre claims he was effectively dismissed as deputy chairman last week after another board member was selected to chair meetings following a dispute over a €511 million pension deficit at the ESB.

Although company chairman Tadhg O’Donoghue has denied accusations of a coup, Mr LaCumbre has engaged legal representation and accused his chairman of being behind the move.

TEEU national industrial secretary Davy Naughton said a meeting of those representing 2,000 electricians and ancillary staff within the ESB yesterday had “decided unanimously” that board members should not be treated as “second-class citizens”.

“Mr O’Donoghue’s unilateral attempt to remove Mr LaCumbre as deputy chair of the company, because of the latter’s views on pensions, is contrary to normal board procedures and gives no recognition of the minister’s decision in making Mr LaCumbre deputy chairperson,” he said.

“If, at the highest level in the company, a worker director elected by all of the staff can be coerced or forced out of the position as deputy chair by the chairperson, because they expressed a view that the chairman does not agree with, then little progress has been made in the last 10 years.”

Although a final decision to engage in stoppages will not be taken until after the board’s next meeting on February 22, Mr Naughton said workers would consider “unilateral action in response”.

An ESB spokesman last night declined to comment on the dispute.