Electricians' union welcomes Labour Court recommendations

The Labour Court has recommended a 4.9% pay hike for electricians, union chiefs said last night.

If accepted, it will be paid in two instalments of 2.5% and 2.4% in September and January.

Unions and employers made submissions to the Court after re-entering talks at the Labour Relations Commission.

The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union welcomed the move.

Eamon Devoy, general secretary designate, said: “We welcome the acknowledgement by the Labour Court that our members are entitled to an increase that was frozen from April 2008 and withheld at a time when the sector was still buoyant.”

Mr Devoy said the union would meet today to decide what course of action to take, but warned it was conditional on how employers would respond.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has previously said that the strike was taking its toll on an already fragile economy.

He appealed for the electricians and employers to work together to find a solution in the interests of the country.

The employers groups withdrew demands for a 10% pay cut among workers while electricians said they were owed an 11% pay rise going back three years.

Scores of building sites, from townhouses to the country’s biggest projects, have been hit over the past week as angry electricians formed pickets.

Corrib gas, Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2 and the new Lansdowne Road stadium were just some of the flagship sites hit.

Guinness and Cadbury got injunctions from the courts to move pickets from their front gates.