ESB's Joint Equality Council

The joint equality Council (JEC) is a joint body drawn from representatives from ESB Management and the Group of Unions, to promote equality and diversity throughout ESB. Members of the Council are nominated for a two-year term. January 2008 saw a new council being formed and the group are busy putting work plans together for the next two years.

Items on the council's agenda will include review of the Bullying & Harassment Policy, updating the 'Striking a Balance' booklet which looks at combining careers and other commitments in ESB and a review of the Code of Practice for People with Disabilities. They are also investigating specific pieces of research and benchmarking best practice external to ESB.

The JEC meets every second month and its views are conveyed to ESB and the Group of Unions through their respective members. In recent years a Disability Representative has been co-opted to the JEC to represent the interests of staff members with disabilities.

The Council Chairperson is external to ESB, and is nominated in turn by ESB and the Group of Unions. Dr Eileen Drew, Associate Professor, Dept of Statistics, Trinity College, Dublin is the Council Chairperson currently. Eileen is well known for her research and publications in areas such as Gender Equality, Disability, Work Life Balance and Representation of Women in Engineering.

ESB is one of a small number of Irish organisations that have established a Joint Equality Council which aptly reflects the organisation's commitment to driving Equality and Diversity in a proactive manner, says Dr. Drew.

"The nature of the JEC's membership facilitates a positive consensus in setting new targets and agendas as well as monitoring progress towards Equality. The work of the Council is vital to updating existing Equality and Diversity policies, procedures and practices which impact on all employees to ensure that ESB will continue to be an employer of choice," she says.

Luke Shinnors, ESB's Executive Director, Human Resources believes the JEC plays a valuable role in stimulating and shaping equality strategies in ESB since its inception in 1994, "The majority of ESB's equality strategies can trace their origin back to the Joint Equality Council," he told EM. "It is the key arena for management and union discussion on developing and implementing Equality policy and practice in ESB."

The newly appointed Equality & Diversity Manager, Joyce Farrell, believes the members of the JEC are committed to working in partnership in order to shape and champion the Equality & Diversity agenda in ESB. "I am delighted to be working with the group. We have a busy agenda over the next two years and a priority for the council is to review our policies at regular intervals and ensure they not only comply with legislation but exceed best practice."

The Joint Equality Council is a very important forum for the Group of Unions and this was endorsed by Siobhan Browne, ESB's Group of Unions representative on the JEC. It is an opportunity to contribute at the highest level to the Equality and Diversity Agenda and to work in partnership with ESB, maintains Siobhan, who says it "gives co-ownership of Equality & Diversity policies and strategies and is an effective means of pro-actively supporting these initiatives".