Electricians agree three year wage deal

The deal consists of a 14.8% pay rise over three years: 4.67% in 2008, 4.5% in 2009 and 5% in 2010.

Union members had originally refused the Joint Industry Board’s (JIB’s) wage offer at the end of June. A JIB/SJIB ballot was held nationally. Out of the 17 340 papers sent out, just 4150 were returned. In all, 59.46% of voters rejected the wage offer. Yet the deal was signed without any improvement from the ECA.

“It was a good agreement and we’ve stuck with that,” said Alex Meikle, head of employee relations at the ECA. “It’s good for the guys and a sensible deal for ECA members.”

Tom Hardacre, Unite-Amicus national officer, said: “It is a reasonable deal, particularly in the light of what is being offered to public sector workers.”

The apparent u-turn in feeling among the union stems from a mixture of the low response to the wage ballot in June and the laws surrounding industrial action. It appears that the legality of any strike ballot was likely to have been contested by the employers because of the union’s inability to know the whereabouts of all of its members. This meant that the only option open to the union was to assess the mood on a site-by-site basis.

“We consulted the membership on some high profile sites but there wasn’t the groundswell needed to take the employers on,” said Hardacre.

Unite-Amicus is to address some of the balloting issues before any future negotiations with the employers.