ESB pension members 'held to ransom'

ESB Group of Unions general secretary Brendan Ogle has said members of the company's pension scheme were "being held to ransom".

Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke, Mr Ogle said union members were carrying a risk of €1.6bn and that they were not willing to "wait for the money to run out".

He said he believed the Government was trying to "kick the problem down the road".

Several Government ministers have moved to reassure workers that the ESB scheme is among one of the most robust in the State.

ESB management and unions have gathered for talks this afternoon in an attempt to avert a strike over the company's pension scheme.

Unions have warned that if the row is not resolved, they will take industrial action from Monday 16 December, which would likely lead to power outages.

The ESB said it is important to get a shared understanding of the issues involved so they can be resolved.

The meeting will be the first head-to-head engagement between management and unions since staff voted to take industrial action.

The unions said this morning they welcomed the "many helpful reassurances to ESB workers" from ministers in recent days.

The dispute centres on who should take financial liability for any future deficits in the company pension scheme.

The ESB argues it has no further liability for deficits following a restructuring in 2010.

However, unions insist responsibility continues to lie with the company.

They say the dispute could be resolved if the ESB restores the defined benefit pension scheme to its balance sheet.

Mr Ogle said: "I'm a bit more confident than I was as result of the various ministers' statements over the last few days.

"They have clearly put out the position that they're prepared to stand over the benefits in this scheme and give protection to the staff.

"If that's the case then their company, the Government own this company, can put it on their accounts and that will resolve the dispute by this afternoon."

Mr Ogle said the unions will work to ensure that strike action does not materialise in the run-up to Christmas.

"It's not a great time, there's never a good time, but hopefully that won't happen," he said.

"We will work 24/7 over the next couple of weeks to ensure this won't happen. There is no threat to services over the Christmas period, but there is a real threat from 16th December."

Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton has said ESB workers should not have concerns about their pension scheme being under-funded.

Speaking on the same programme, Ms Burton urged the unions to think about older people and pensioners who fear their heat and light could be cut off in the run-up to Christmas and in the period afterwards.

She said she was confident the dispute would be sorted out.

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