New voice for Electrical Contractors

national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Sunday June 01, 2008 19:45 by Dave Butler - NECI nationalelectricalcontractors at gmail dot com

A new repersentive group is being formed to speak for the majority of Electrical Contractors in Ireland who have no voice when it comes to talks about pay and conditions. This group is to be called The NATIONAL ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS OF IRELAND (NECI). A meeting is being held in the Radisson Hotel Athlone on Saturday the 7th of June and all interested Electrical Contractors are invited to attend. A steering group has being set up to oversee the formation of the new organisation.

The need for the new group was highlighted when the three parties to the Registered Employment Agreement that is in force in the Electrical industry agreed, in principle a rate increase of €1.05 per hour and went to the labour relation’s commission to sign off on the increase. Because of objections lodged by concerned Electrical Contractors who felt they could not afford the increase in the present economic climate an open hearing was held in the commission on the 22 of May. The new group was represented at this hearing and voiced objections not only to the €1.05 rate increase but to the whole Registered Employment Agreement.

The objection to the whole agreement is based on section 27 (3) Part C of the 1946 Industrial relations act which states that the Labour Court must be satisfied that party's to the agreement must be substantially representative of the body's they are speaking for. It is the NECIs opinion that the Electrical Contractors Association (ECA) with 59 members and the Association of Electrical Contractors Of Ireland (AECI) with 360 members are not representative of the approx 4000 contractors who employ people. This hearing has now been defered to the 16th of June.

The new group have being called rouge employers by TEEU who realise the serious threat that the existing agreement is under. NECI objective is to be involved in the negations for a new Registered Employment Agreement that is fair to all employers and workers in the sector, not as TEEU claim to reduce all electricians pay to the mimium wage. In fact the NECI would like a system in the new agreement where top performing employees could be paid more than the existing retes.