David Begg addresses Partnership Conference
Executive Director HR & Corporate Affairs, John Campion, opened the 3rd National Partnership Conference at Johnstown House in Enfield on Thursday, September 20th. In his address John explained that last year's conference in Mullingar (2006), being the first since 2004, had effectively relaunched Partnership across ESB. John hoped that "this year's conference and the new Partnership Strategy being launched later that day, would assist in the putting down of deep roots for Partnership at local levels, throughout ESB and reflect the commitment and practice of Partnership displayed at the top level by the Executive Director Team and the Group of Unions". John informed the meeting of the importance of Partnership to ESB referring to the recently Updated HR Strategy which is underpinned by Management's continued commitment to Partnership.
Reinforcing this point, Chief Executive Padraig McManus, encouraged all those attending to participate in an open question and answer session and emphasised that presentations given to the EDT/GOU Forum were the same presentations made to the Board. "Everyone has to contribute to the success of ESB," he said. "Partnership is as much for management reps as for staff reps and everything has got to be on the table. You have to take on the issue if ESB is going to survive and be strong. We can never sit on our hands and we have to encourage every one of the 37 Partnership groups to be proactive. Management does not have all the knowledge on how best things can be done - a lot of people out there have a huge contribution to make."
The Chief Executive said the company would be engaging with government on the White Paper on Energy, adding that ESB looked forward to the challenge of meeting the stretching targets outlined in the policy document. ESB rose to major challenges in the past, he added, citing the targets achieved by ESB Networks in the last five years.
The opening of the All Island market on November 1st would be a great time for Power Generation to set its future and make its mark going forward but the loss in market share for ESB Customer Supply would have to be addressed, he told the audience. "Our next power station, after Aghada, will probably be clean coal and our growth in the generation section is going to be in the international area, particularly in the U.K. where we are going to see integration of the markets with Ireland."
Davy Naughton, the newly appointed Secretary of the ESB Group of Unions, said that there was a considerable exchange of information at senior level and an understanding as to why decisions are made, even if there was not always agreement on issues. Davy explained his view that Partnership requires the commitment and determination of all if it is to be successful and he encouraged staff and management at all levels to engage in the process, 'if people do not put a lot in, they will not get a lot out'. Speaking about Partnership at National Level, Davy explained that while it has good points and bad points that on an overall basis Unions and Staff gained more by being part of the process.
David Begg, General Secretary of ICTU said that the current regime of Partnership and industrial peace in ESB happened because people put a lot of time and effort into it. "ESB is entering a new era. The three objectives of the White Paper are security of supply, cost competitiveness and sustainability. I could not envisage how achieving these three central principles would be assisted in any way by transferring the transmission assets of the Company.
"Structural changes in ESB would not facilitate other energy targets but the public at large may be given a view "not in agreement with the facts," he said. "What is needed is good and effective dialogue."
Following a Q&A session Colm Smyth and Sean Treacy of Group Partnership outlined the new Partnership Strategy. In the five years since Partnership was last reviewed (2002) many changes had taken place inside and outside ESB and this update focused on the five areas where actions are now needed to bring Partnership up a level in ESB. The five areas are;
- Updating our Partnership Structures
- Improving Communication at all levels
- Providing more Business Issues to local Partnership Groups
- Improving Group Effectiveness through Training
- Improving Publicity and Promotion of Partnership.
Sean and Colm explained the extensive consultation process that took place around the development of the strategy with the Executive Director Team, Group of Unions, Worker Directors, Chairpersons and Secretaries of all local Partnership Groups invited to participate. The output from this process had been incorporated into the New Strategy, a summary brochure on which is being circulated to all staff.
Eugene Dalton presented on ESB's corporate responsibilities and how Partnership can contribute in this area. "Reputation risk is emerging as a significant business risk for many companies and public awareness about responsible behaviour is increasing," said Eugene. He felt that Partnership groups could build bridges locally within their communities and promote environmental issues such as energy awareness, recycling and reducing carbon footprint.
In the afternoon Collette Devlin of the Education & Training Services Trust facilitated a workshop at the conference on the various stages of group development and understanding roles and group dynamics.
A number of display stands were visited during the day by participants on issues relating to Health & Wellbeing, Diversity, ElectricAid and the Official Languages Act.
