Frantic efforts to avert electrical strike

THE Labour Relations Commission has 48 hours to avert indefinite strike action by 10,500 electricians which could grind all the country’s major construction projects to a halt from Monday.

The Taoiseach’s main third-party industrial relations mechanism, the National Implementation Body (NIB), yesterday intervened in the dispute, asking both sides to return to the Labour Relations Commission.

“In view of the potential for very serious disruption across the economy, the National Implementation Body has considered the threatened dispute in the electrical contracting sector,” the NIB said in a statement last night.

“In light of the complex issues involved, the NIB is of the view that the parties should immediately re-engage with the Labour Relations Commission to explore the full range of issues at the centre of the dispute with a view to averting the threatened action.”

The strike threat has emerged because the Technical, Electrical and Engineering Union is demanding an 11.6% increase in the rate for electricians from €21.49 to €23.98.

It claims the increases have mounted up through Registered Employment Agreements between employers and unions since 2006.

However, employers claim that in the current climate, the 11.6% rise being sought by the unions is inappropriate, given the downturn in the construction industry and resultant lack of work in the electrical sector.

Yesterday, director general of the Construction Industry Federation, Tom Parlon, wrote to Eamon Devoy of the TEEU, telling him:

“The threatened strike action on Monday by the TEEU, and the targeting of such sites as Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport, the new Intel development in Co Kildare and the Corrib Gas Project, is hugely damaging for our industry and for Ireland’s economic reputation.

“Strike action on Monday will do untold damage to our industry, our economy and the perception of Ireland’s attractiveness as a place in which to invest and work.”

However, Mr Devoy responded: “Employer bodies would be far better off making a serious effort to negotiate a settlement of this dispute than engaging in a deliberate campaign of misinformation to confuse the public. It is in their interests, as well as ours, to maintain high standards in electrical contracting rather than allow themselves to be led down the road of competition based on low pay rates, low skill levels and the erosion of safety, training and quality standards.”

The TEEU has accepted the invitation to the Labour Relations Commission over the weekend but insists action will go ahead on Monday in the absence of a resolution. In fact, trade union sources have indicated that unless employers put favourable terms on the table, the strike will not be delayed to allow for further intervention by industrial dispute resolution bodies.