I wish to bring you up to date on developments between the Union and the Company regarding Supplementary Report No 1 passed at this years Conference.

After Conference the Telecom Sectoral Executive agreed operational structures in order to engage with the Company on both agendas (Union and Company going forward).  It also decided that we should engage through The Partnership Steering Group (PSG) and the General Secretary at national group level on issues such as pay determination, staffing, structures, annual leave, etc.

As you are all aware the sale transaction of the Company to Babcock and Brown was in progress at this time.  Whilst exploratory talks were ongoing at PSG level it quickly became obvious that with the imminent arrival of new owners and the refocusing of objectives and priorities that progress would be very difficult, if at all possible, while this transition was taking place.  Our views were proven correct when the Head of Employee Relations announced his departure in August quickly followed by the decision of the HR Director to depart by Christmas.  A further impasse arose due to the Union having to take very serious action (suspension of partnership) in order to insist on our basic right to represent staff in Meteor Mobile.  Previous correspondence to Branches have outlined this issue in some detail.

The current position is that since our re-engagement with Partnership, the Executive continue to discuss and debate the situation and Branch Secretaries, Co-Ordinators and Partnership members have  recently been  brought up to date with a commitment to continue such briefings as the discussions progress (or not). I have also been in contact with the new CEO, Rex Comb, who is currently being apprised and brought up to speed on all aspects of the Eircom business.  I expect to meet with him very shortly to discuss our respective agendas and start meaningful discussions on all the issues covered by the supplementary report. While the delay is unfortunate, given the Babcock and Brown situation, I am sure you will accept that such delay was inevitable.

The NEC has decided that it is necessary for the partnership groups to re-engage on the wide ranging proposals tabled by the Company.  This engagement is crucial if we are to fully understand the possible impact on our members while at the same time allowing us the opportunity to calculate the value of the proposals to the company. The key debate within the Union at present concerns the implementation of those changes. The Executive have therefore agreed that the partnership groups should negotiate with the company on its proposals up to the point of implementation but that no structural change can be implemented without final agreement on the overall discussions by the members. It has also been agreed that exceptions can only be made on business critical issues where cost savings procured are accounted for and factored in to the overall agreement and where agreement has been reached at SEC level.

The other area of concern has been in relation to the introduction of normal ongoing change as covered by recent National Agreements. Given that we have only recently approved Towards 2016, we are committed by our member’s decision to introduce normal ongoing change but the SEC will decide on the category of change where there is any dispute arises relating to those issues.

I am acutely aware that you the members have high expectations but as your General Secretary it is necessary to manage those expectations by clearly setting out the circumstances within which we have to operate. I respect that branches remitted their motions at our last conference in favour of the NEC’s supplementary report and it is now clear with the passing of the new National agreement that the branches adopted the correct strategy as otherwise all the cost increasing motions would now be ruled out under the terms of Towards 2016. I expect members are acutely aware of the challenges facing Eircom and its staff today but it is timely that we remind ourselves of that background on the eve of what are critical negotiations.

• A strategic decision was made by the members some years ago to take a stake in the Company.  Whilst nobody envisaged the buy and sell rollercoaster we have been on since, it has brought us undeniable benefits.  Today we hold 35% of the company, the biggest stake we ever had.
• The down side is that this also gives us a Company highly leveraged with a debt of around €4billion.
• The future of the company necessitates ongoing and new capital investment in all areas e.g. IT, NGN, Networks, Mobile, etc  to maintain efficient infrastructure and quality of service and to provide for the ever changing new technologies.
• The average age of our Eircom members and the balance between their locations versus the work locations are further causes for concern.As outlined to our Conference the payment of the National Wage Agreement means that any other agreement on pay will have to be self financing.

In preparation for the upcoming negotiations the SEC has already carried out a comprehensive exercise on pay rates within the telecoms industry both home and abroad and within similar disciplines in other industries. , A further exercise has been undertaken to revisit this to see if more accurate and verifiable information can be obtained to assist our arguments.  Most of us realise that the long term interests of our members in Eircom can only be realised through a successful operating company and any actions we take need to take that fact into consideration.  It is also in the company’s interests  to have a content work force and it is now opportune to conclude an agreement which marries both our needs and which enables us to move forward together over the coming crucial years, Whatever the outcome, our only chance of success is by working together as one for a common objective. To that end I expect all concerned to accept directions from your democratically elected Executive until we are in a position to put the outcome of the negotiation to ballot.