I welcome the Minister for Labour to the House and call on him to make a statement. I wish to point out that there will be no debate and no statements will be allowed by Members.
ESB Dispute: Statement.
I wonder if that ruling can be queried because I invoked section 29 and was told that it was not a matter of urgency. I understand that the Dáil has had a debate.
It is the Minister's prerogative under Standing Order 30 to come to this House and make a statement if he so wishes. I would be grateful if the Senator would allow the Minister to do that.
I certainly will do that but it illustrates the irrelevance and absurdity of this Chamber.
The Senator will not question my ruling.
I would like to bring the House up to date on the dispute and to make a statement on some aspects of the dispute. The House will know that the Government yesterday issued a statement on the ESB dispute which I feel I should bring to the attention of the House and put it on the record. At the meeting yesterday morning the Government considered the very serious situation which has arisen as a result of the strike action by electricians employed by the ESB, which is being supported by other key workers in the company.
The Government are extremely concerned that a dispute in this essential industry should have occurred so soon after agreement on a new three-year national programme had been reached between all the social partners and the Government and after this programme, and the pay agreement associated with it, had been overwhelmingly endorsed by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. They deeply regret the serious disruption to production and employment, to the social services and the inconvenience and hardship caused to families, especially to the aged and the ill, which will be inevitable if the dispute continues.
The dispute comes at a time when the country has begun to get on top of many of the fundamental problems both social and economic which we have faced in recent years. Any setback to this progress would be completely unjustifiable when the country faces uncertainty in the international scene. Disputes of this kind make all the more difficult the task of creating the jobs we need. The interests of the country and its people cannot be allowed to take second place to the interests of any one group of workers when there are procedures to enable their grievances to be considered.
The Government are determined that the provisions of the Programme for Economic and Social Progress shall be adhered to. The electricians' claim can be assessed by procedures in that context. The Government, therefore, in the public interest call for a return to normal work immediately while the appropriate procedures to look at any possible grievances are put in train.
To summarise the background to the dispute, about 18 months ago the Electrical Trade Union initiated a claim for a salary increase for electricians mainly on the grounds of impact of reorganisation in 1986. Negotiations took place with the union but as no agreement could be reached the claim was referred to the ESB's Joint Industrial Council in September 1990. The council issued its recommendation on 14 November 1990 which effectively requested both parties to meet again to find a solution. The sides met subsequently on at least two occasions. The matter was than referred back to the Joint Industrial Council who ruled on two issues: (1) that an in-scale increment would apply to all electricians; (2) that electricians on their natural maximum that is, those who may not advance further without promotion or progression through qualifications as agreed, be paid a once-off lump sum of £650.
The decision of the Joint Industrial Council was accepted by the ESB but rejected by the ETU. Following expiry of the 30-day cooling-off period which applied after the issue of a council recommendation, in accordance with agreed procedures, the union informed the ESB by letter of 5 April 1991 that its executive, having carefully considered the matter at issue, decided to sanction entering into an official dispute with the ESB. This letter formally put the ESB on 14 days notice to that effect.
Further meetings between the sides took place all day Friday last but negotiations broke down. The strike took effect from Monday morning and the Labour Relations Commission immediately invited the parties for exploratory discussions. Those discussions have continued throughout the night and are still in progress this afternoon.
I would like to emphasise again the Government's belief that the damage being caused to the economy and the hardship being experienced by individuals is totally out of proportion to the issues involved in the dispute. Again, in the public interest I call for a return to work to enable the issues in dispute to be fully considered in a calm atmosphere. I am keeping in close touch with the situation. I hope that a formula can be arrived at which would allow a return to work pending further consideration of the issues involved.
Those talks have taken place in the Labour Relations Commission, in a hotel nearby, and with the staff of the Department of Labour. All three groups have been literally on call since early Monday morning and are still there. The talks have gone on now for 31 hours without a break. I would particularly like to thank the people involved in the Labour Relations Commission who have recently given up three of their four weekends to prevent disputes. In this case they are now almost three days without a break, and particularly over the last 31 hours. I would like to put on record my thanks to them and also my thanks to the negotiators on both sides who have done as I have asked them yesterday to try to keep working towards a solution of the dispute.
Any examination of this dispute will show that it is not necessary to have such a national disruption for an issue like this. There have been some statements today that this was the only issue. There are ongoing issues that surface week in, week out. In this case it came to a strike action. Both sides have made their point and now they should resume full supply to the public and continue on with the machinery they have, their own Joint Industrial Council.
It is worth again saying to the Members of the Seanad that the ESB are one of the few sectors of the entire community that have their own Joint Industrial Council and it is on that basis that other forms of industrial relations machinery do not interfere with them until they request intervention by other bodies. In this case they requested intervention on Monday morning and the Labour Relations Commission have been involved since. The talks look likely to go on throughout the night and, hopefully, can be concluded.
I would like to thank the Cathaoirleach for giving me the opportunity of updating the Seanad on the matter.