ESB management and staff yesterday failed to reach an agreement in their talks and now it seems as though industrial action is inevitable. ESB workers will now serve strike notice to the company management later today and industrial action now looks set to take place from December 16th.

The news will not be welcomed by ESB customers who have been warned to expect power outages over the festive season as a result of the strike action. The row between workers and management surrounds a €1.6 billion deficit in the company’s pension scheme with ESB staff firmly believing that management has breached a previous agreement reached back in 2010.

Unite and ESB management have stated that large differences remained between the parties but that they were committed to continue to engage in further talks. For all of us who will be cooking the Christmas Turkey this year, we certainly hope an agreement is soon reached to avoid Christmas power cuts.