Re-energising Partnership

The second National Partnership Meeting took place at the Mullingar Park Hotel on Thursday, September 7th. The meeting was chaired by John Campion, Executive Director Human Resources and Corporate Affairs. He extended a special welcome to guest speaker Des Geraghty and the new Chairman of the Industrial Council, Kevin Foley.

John Campion outlined the background to the Partnership process and stressed that in an era when staff are having to confront some of the greatest changes ever, it is important for management to come here today and reinforce its commitment to partnership going forward.

John also paid tribute to the late Joe Moran and Paddy Reilly, both entirely committed to the partnership model and both of whom sadly passed away in the past year.

Chief Executive Padraig McManus outlined the challenges facing the company and said what he wanted to see from the day was a re-energising of the whole partnership agenda. "In future we should ensure the partnership model continues to work no matter what changes are taking place. I want everyone in ESB to have a clear understanding of what we're about in the company. My objectives are to remain as a strong VIU, to which I am totally committed."

The Chief Executive went on to say that he wanted to invest in assets that are going to position ESB into the future to ensure the company could sustain the economy going forward. He outlined some of the challenges facing Power Generation and the need for investment in our generation assets while accepting that it will be a smaller but stronger business line. He acknowledged, however, that it is always a challenge to manage our cost base and that we must recognise there will be other players in the field.

The Chief Executive concluded by making an appeal for Partnership groups to support the ElectricAid staff charity initiative. "We should be able to improve the society in which we work. I would genuinely love if Partnership could take on that role – businesses should make a difference in the community and we shouldn't look to others to do it."

Tom Crean, Facilitator to the ESB Group of Unions for the past 15 months, outlined his role in facilitating the rebuilding of trust and unity. He said his role was to create a common cause, propose solutions and rebuild trust. A sound realistic partnership existed between management and union officials and had resulted in the conclusion and formation of a set of proposals in relation to the Pay, Pension and Change Agreement. He stated that Trade Unions wanted to reconstitute as a formal group and he expected this to happen shortly.

Des Geraghty, Former President SIPTU, Execcutive Council ICTU, Former Member of European Parliament and now Chairman of Affordable Homes Partnership, delivered a very enthusiastic address and said at the outset that as a citizen of this country he was immensely proud of ESB. "By any standard it is a successful company, delivers on its commitments, adapts to modernisation and is a good utility. In addition to that, ESBI has a reputation for excellence and high standards."

He strongly urged management and unions to spend a lot of time on identifying shared objectives. "You can spend a lot of time trying to unravel what is partnership and what is IR. You have good Industrial Council IR procedures in ESB, which are a very valuable mechanism and a good net. You should not feel this role is undermined if conflict is discussed in the partnership environment," he concluded.

Sean Treacy and Colm Smyth from the Central Partnership group gave an outline of the role of the central partnership team. The training for partnership groups programme, which was piloted, is now ready to roll out to all the partnership groups around the country and the central group is now looking at the next steps for partnership.

An insight into how partnership was working effectively on the ground was delivered by John Seale and Senan McGrath from Fleet & Equipment in ESB Networks and Danny Kane from Erne Stations. Both locations outlined the enormous progress which had been made when issues were approached in the spirit of partnership.

The afternoon session included presentations on business topics from Sean Atkinson of ESBI, Fergal McNamara from Regulation and James Foley from ElectricAid. James outlined some of the many projects worldwide that ElectricAid had funded and how effective relatively small funding can make an incredible difference to so many lives. ElectricAid felt that the partnership groups would be an ideal vehicle of common cause which would help to deliver new members. The afternoon closed with an Open Forum during which the participants discussed issues relating to Partnership and