Free Lekky ..........only in Ireland.

MidlandsM · 30-11-2010 5:28pm #1

so fcuking sick of this place...........its gets worse....:rolleyes:

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/varadkar-some-esb-staff-getting-free-electricity-483879.html

AlmightyCushion · 30-11-2010 5:30pm

"Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar has claimed that the ESB is giving free electricity to some of its staff"
Claimed is the important word. They can claim what ever the fúck they like without any proof to back it up.

General Zod · 30-11-2010 5:30pm

MidlandsM wrote: »

so fcuking sick of this place...........its gets worse....:rolleyes:

http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/varadkar-some-esb-staff-getting-free-electricity-483879.html

If it's part of their remuneration package what's the issue?

Quazzie · 30-11-2010 5:30pm

Perk of the job tbf. Everyone has them. Theirs are better than some. Hardly groundbreaking news.

MidlandsM · 30-11-2010 5:31pm

General Zod wrote: »

If it's part of their remuneration package what's the issue?

why should they get a free supply from the company you and I own, especially as they disconnect the poor and needy on the breadline ? Get of yer high horse's you fools and grow a set.

AlmightyCushion · 30-11-2010 5:31pm

Quazzie wrote: »

Perk of the job tbf. Everyone has them. Theirs are better than some. Hardly groundbreaking news.

It's a pretty sweet perk though if it is true. I'd love to have it. I'd leave the kettle under a dripping tap and tape the boil button down before I left the house every morning, just because I could.

aidan_walsh · 30-11-2010 5:32pm

MidlandsM wrote: »

why should they get a free supply from the company you and I own ?

Perk of the job, not perk of ownership.

Guy:Incognito · 30-11-2010 5:34pm

MidlandsM wrote: »

why should they get a free supply from the company you and I own ?

Would it make you feel better if they paid them more but charged them for their electricity? Whats the difference?

MidlandsM · 30-11-2010 5:34pm

aidan_walsh wrote: »

Perk of the job, not perk of ownership.

Bollox.:mad:

Elevator · 30-11-2010 5:34pm

Quazzie wrote: »

Perk of the job tbf. Everyone has them. Theirs are better than some. Hardly groundbreaking news.

well as long as they're working within the tightened perks thingy the government brought in few years back they'll be ok

MidlandsM · 30-11-2010 5:36pm

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

"Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar has claimed that the ESB is giving free electricity to some of its staff"
Claimed is the important word. They can claim what ever the fúck they like without any proof to back it up.

now, you know its true if its been highlighted. Only a formality to verfiy it now.

TheZohanS · 30-11-2010 5:36pm

MidlandsM wrote: »

Free Lekky ..........only in Ireland.

Lekky is innocent.

AlmightyCushion · 30-11-2010 5:39pm

MidlandsM wrote: »

now, you know its true if its been highlighted. Only a formality to verfiy it now.

No we don't know it's true, it very well maybe but we don't know. He's only claiming it's true, he hasn't given us any proof, it's just a claim. I could claim that this Leo fella use to be in Fair City, doesn't make it true.

seamus · 30-11-2010 5:40pm

I've never worked for a company supplying end-consumer products/services and not been able to avail of a discount of some kind or another on their products. And the same goes for pretty much everyone I know. People who work in shops get staff discounts, people who work for mobile operators get flat-rate bills, people who work for microsoft get to buy expensive software for next to nothing and get free subscriptions to expensive services.

While free electricity is a massive perk/bonus/benefit (€2k/year?), it's not remotely surprising that a member of the ESB staff, be it board or lowly call centre worker, gets some kind of discount.

Typical sensationalist nonsense from the media. If the guy wasn't getting free electricity, he would be getting an extra €5k in his salary. Big fncking deal.

red menace · 30-11-2010 5:40pm

Fine Gael really scraping the bottom of the barrell on this one,
I await a story where they demand that high paid RTE execs pay full price in the Canteen

TouchingVirus · 30-11-2010 5:40pm

Perk of the job. Some UPC workers get free TV and Internet. Some Meteor workers get their phonebills paid for. Par for the course, hardly groundbreaking. If we didn't give them that perk there'd be another "you'd" pay for - either higher wages or something else.

biko · 30-11-2010 5:42pm

Not only in Ireland, apparently Pakistan and India too it is claimed.

MidlandsM · 30-11-2010 5:43pm

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Some UPC workers get free TV and Internet. Some Meteor workers get their phonebills paid for. Par for the course, hardly groundbreaking.

they're private co's.

AlmightyCushion · 30-11-2010 5:43pm

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Perk of the job. Some UPC workers get free TV and Internet. Some Meteor workers get their phonebills paid for. Par for the course, hardly groundbreaking. If we didn't give them that perk there'd be another "you'd" pay for - either higher wages or something else.

I was actually talking to a guy who works for UPC. He should be getting free 30Mb broadband free of charge but their network doesn't service his house so he has to pay for eircom broadband. How annoying would that be.

MazG · 30-11-2010 5:44pm

Some hotel/restaurant employees get free food when they're on duty
Some leisure centre employees get free gym memberships
Some shop employees get discounts
Some travel company employees get free travel
Some accountants/engineers/lawyers/other professionals get their professional body memberships paid by their employers
Some sales/distribution people get company cars/vans
Some brewery employees get free beer
etc.. etc...

And, it is alleged, ESB employees get free electricity.

Can't see the problem here, it's all part of the remuneration package. This is what you get for working here: X Salary, X bonuses (if applicable) and X Benefit in Kind (BIK).

If, however, the BIK isn't being taxed... well then, given that ESB is a semi-state entity, that is something that would need to be addressed

red menace · 30-11-2010 5:44pm

they're private co's.

So only private companies should have benifits?

bonerm · 30-11-2010 5:45pm

red menace wrote: »

Fine Gael really scraping the bottom of the barrell on this one,
I await a story where they demand that high paid RTE execs pay full price in the Canteen

I once tried to get a discounted lunch in the RTE canteen, but they'd heard all the excuses.

Also has anyone else taken an instant dislike to Varadkar for no reason (or perhaps good reason)? Something amazingly smackable about his face I find. Doubly troubling considering FG appear to be grooming him for future leadership. I'd hate to see him as Taoiseach one day.

Orando Broom · 30-11-2010 5:47pm

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

It's a pretty sweet perk though if it is true. I'd love to have it. I'd leave the kettle under a dripping tap and tape the boil button down before I left the house every morning, just because I could.

I'd have three X-Boxes running simultaneously so I could flit between games at my whim.

TouchingVirus · 30-11-2010 5:48pm

MidlandsM wrote: »

they're private co's.

Oh, so when Eircom was Telecom Eireann you'd have been mad about people getting free phone but now you don't care?

It's a perk, there is nothing wrong with it.

@AlmightyCushion: I'd be sick if that happened. Nothing like a bit of free 30meg internets

If I had free electricity I would buy some oil heaters, heat up the whole house 24/7 and open the windows to regulate the temperatures. It might even melt the snow in the Garden. Woo woo, milk the taxpayer!

AlmightyCushion · 30-11-2010 5:50pm

TouchingVirus wrote: »

@AlmightyCushion: I'd be sick if that happened. Nothing like a bit of free 30meg internets

If I remember right, he was only able to get 1Mb as well because he was so far away from the exchange.

Orando Broom · 30-11-2010 5:50pm

MazG wrote: »

Some hotel/restaurant employees get free food when they're on duty
Some leisure centre employees get free gym memberships
Some shop employees get discounts
Some travel company employees get free travel
Some accountants/engineers/lawyers/other professionals get their professional body memberships paid by their employers
Some sales/distribution people get company cars/vans
Some brewery employees get free beer
etc.. etc...

And, it is alleged, ESB employees get free electricity.

Can't see the problem here, it's all part of the remuneration package. This is what you get for working here: X Salary, X bonuses (if applicable) and X Benefit in Kind (BIK).

If, however, the BIK isn't being taxed... well then, given that ESB is a semi-state entity, that is something that would need to be addressed

Bin men get free rubbish.

Weathermen get free weather.

listermint · 30-11-2010 5:53pm

Perks!!

Yes the same perks would be cut in any fully private enterprise if they needed to pursue cost cutting excercises. Which frankly with the cost of the wage bill in the ESB we do! . That place is an enflated balloon being sustained by high electricity prices. Anyone who thinks perks cant be slashed is frankly an idiot. We have to examine all facets of public / public private enterprise over the next few years. Those who think any different have their heads in the sand.

Wage bill ..... inc

STAFF costs at ESB continue to escalate despite widespread deflation with new figures showing the average pay and pension cost per worker is heading towards €100,000 a year.

The figures are included in a document circulating in the bond market as the company looks to raise another tranche of funding.

The company told the Irish Independent yesterday that a comprehensive cost review programme is now “ongoing’’ within ESB.

The company’s financials for the six months to June 2009 show “total employee-related costs” now come to €388.2m, which if repeated over the full year would amount to €776.5m.

This is the total cost of employees taken into the profit and loss account.

Pension

According to the last annual report the company employs 7,870 staff, which would leave pay and pension costs for each employee costing on average €98,678 per head.

The chief reason for the growing costs are crippling pension costs caused by poor stock market returns, but basic salaries are also up due to ESB paying two national pay agreements.

The document gives a full breakdown of ESB employee costs in the six months to June 2009, measured against the same period of 2008.

Salaries in the half year of 2009 totalled €259.4m, up from €246.8m, in the previous period, a rise of 5pc. The company paid out €21m in overtime, which was down on €28m in the previous year.

The company managed to cut back other benefits – travel, expenses and holiday leave – from €22m to €18.9m.

Asked to comment on the cost issues, the company provided a statement, citing a rising pension charge and higher wage costs.

“The higher total employee- related costs at June 2009 compared with the prior period reflect a higher pension charge due to the poor performance of the financial markets.

Salary costs have increased because of the impact of national wage agreement increases in early and late 2008 (2.5pc and 3.5pc respectively),” said the company.

“This has been partially offset by the impact of staff exits. A comprehensive cost review programme is ongoing within the ESB group which addresses staff and other cost areas,” it added.

The document also reveals that ESB has made a gain of €265m from the sale of several power stations to the Spanish energy giant Endesa in the six months to the end of June 2009.

This left the company posting a pre-tax profit of €525m in the period, almost twice the profitability of the same period in 2008.

The document also reveals that turnover at ESB has dropped slightly for the first half of 2009 to €1.65bn, down from €1.67bn in the previous year.

The sale of the power stations to Endesa could allow the company to pay a higher dividend than usual to the Government.

However it may come under pressure from unions to use the money to lower the pension deficit which stands at €2.6bn.

There engineers do a sterling job in some conditions. But i know so many of them personally who will tell you outright it was a gravy train job.

TouchingVirus · 30-11-2010 5:54pm

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

If I remember right, he was only able to get 1Mb as well because he was so far away from the exchange.

You got them anti-depressants, didn't you? Because I'd take that turn of events pretty hard. Dream:: Yay UPC, free entertainment for life! ... Reality: 1mb, from Eircom, paid for by me and TV from Sky paid by me.

FUUUUUUUUUUUU

MazG · 30-11-2010 5:54pm

Orando Broom wrote: »

Bin men get free rubbish.

Weathermen get free weather.

Sir Gallagher · 30-11-2010 5:54pm

Another outraged citizen moaning about something which is none of their business, this sh1te is getting tiresome at this stage.

MidlandsM · 30-11-2010 6:05pm

Sir Gallagher wrote: »

Another outraged citizen moaning about something which is none of their business, this sh1te is getting tiresome at this stage.

Well don't post then in reply.:rolleyes: ......and it is my business and yours but maybe your too much of a moron to realise that?

Free Lekky ..........only in Ireland.

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