Electrical employers warn against strike

ELECTRICAL employers have warned that any follow up to last year’s strike over terms and conditions in the industry will only increase the level of unemployment among electricians.

The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) has said a decision by the Electrical Contractors Association to reject a 4.9% pay increase in the industry – to which it had initially agreed – had made a strike by 10,500 electricians “inevitable”.

However, in response, the bodies which represent contractors have claimed any pay increase will add to the ever increasing number of employers who are non-compliant.

“The TEEU is going to be told by electricians ‘what do you mean you are going to get me an extra €1.50 per hour? I am not getting the original €21 as it is’,” said Jack Hegarty of the Association of Electrical Contractors in Ireland which represents 300 small and medium-sized contractors. “There are already people out there being paid €16 by non-compliant companies.”

Mr Hegarty’s organisation has said consistently for the last number of months that it will not agree to the pay increase. Now he has called for a complete overhaul of the Registered Employment Agreement (REA) which governs pay and conditions in the industry.

“It needs to be brought up to the economic realities of today,” he said. Mr Hegarty said employers do not want to reduce the pay of their employees but, if the alternative for many is closing down or going non-compliant, then maybe the rate needs to be cut to about €18.

Mr Hegarty also called for the two authors of a recent report on the electrical profession, commissioned by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, to be assigned to the industry so they can oversee its transformation. He said Peter Cassells and Finbarr Flood had proven they had a practical grasp of the industry and he suggested that if they were appointed to oversee the industry for a number of years, they could, for example, create a body of up to 100 inspectors with a level of education in the right areas of the business to improve the compliance of contractors and also have binding powers to monitor the level of compliance.