STT to buy Eircom for €130m

freakyFriday

I've heard ESOP are to make a distribution at the end of March....has anyone else heard this or can anyone confirm 7k?? It was on ESOP in Facebook!:o

EasyShooter

Can't find ESOP on Facebook... Anyway seems the only sure way to get cash from esop is to die. Earlier editions of ESOP Xtra and the esop website showed deceased members being allocated their full entitlement. The link on esop site is currently not working (Arrangements for Deceased Participants). Maybe it's time the members of ESOP closed up shop and sold out...

thepenpusher

EasyShooter wrote: »

Maybe it's time the members of ESOP closed up shop and sold out...

I would happily do so, if it were an option. However, the trustee has other ideas. Also, it;s impossible to get any information out of them.

johnny 97

I emailed esop last week asking if there will be a payout this year.
I got the same standard reply, that they monitor this on an ongoing
basis and no decision has been made yet. I also asked why there has
been no update on their website since 16/12/09 and why we were not
kept informed of anything that was happening to which i got no reply :mad:

allend

What do you expect from them, it reminds me of my days in eircom ,the union was like a secret organization then. Anybody out there know anything?

Sponge Bob

I heard Con Scanlon retired from the ESOT last year after he retired from the eircom Board in June and the important matter of his pension would have been the number one priority for the ESOT while he was there.

The pension pot to guarantee half his €300k+ annual ESOT salary for life would have been considerable and sure Con is worth it

I'll not have any begrudgery.

allend

Time for a peaceful revolution in Ireland, get rid of these so called socialists along with other 70's children like Cowen and Kenny .

BrookieD

dont suppose anyone has any solid news on the next allocation of shares?

ph3n0m666

BrookieD wrote: »

dont suppose anyone has any solid news on the next allocation of shares?

no news at all - even the esop facebook page has gone desperately quiet

johnny 97

Here we are at the end of march, and esop are still keeping us in the dark.
How we as members are being treated is apalling. Is it just me or does anybody else wonder what the people who work in the esop unit do from one end of the year to the other. They cant give you any information when you ring, they give the same standard replies to all calls and e-mails and seem to know nothing about whats going on ? very strange.

Berthram

Hi guys. Being following this thread as I am ex-eircom.

I got a big brown envelope this morning re change of pension fund and contents labeled 'strictly confidental'.

Is everything OK? Have we bigger things to worry about besides ESOP?

Sponge Bob

The only pension that is fully funded is Con Scanlons ...by the ESOP What was the actuarial estimate of the underfunding deficit in the eircom number 1 pension and the number 2 pension schemes from which staff pensions are to be paid ?? That was about €400m - €500m last year and the question is whether this deficit has stabilised or worsened in the interim.

thepenpusher

Yes, the union is definitely a self perpetuating entity. Of use to noone but the officials who see to it that their own nests are well feathered. Socialists make the best Capitalists, don't you think?

Information is never forthcoming. As Allend correctly pointed out, it's like a secret society and it can never be questioned. Ranks close and lips become tight at the slightest suggestion that everything might not seem to be as it should with regard to the ESOP or pensions.

Any request made for information, of any kind, is met with a dismissive attitude. At best unhelpful and at worst misleading.

I wonder how many ex-union officials have found their way into jobs with the ESOT at every level?

thepenpusher

http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2010/02/28/story47673.asp

Anyone know anything about the 'deal' mentioned in this article made between Eircom and the Union regarding pensions?

Also, it's interesting reading for anyone hoping for a payment this summer. Pity that ex-eircom members of the Esop can read about this in The Sunday Business Post but when the question is asked of the Esot or the Union they claim to be unable to comment.

hellbent

It's amazing that the ""union"" should come out of the woodwork to contact us (pensioners) about THEIR decision to limit their own pension contributions, in order to spring a pensions freeze on us. We were never polled, either by this farce of a union, or by the """trustees""". WTF.

As for esop payments, there's only the Vodafone shares left with any residual/proven value, is that not the case? Should that be paid out, if I remember correctly, it's just over enough to make one full payout.

BrookieD

still no update i see, so much for transparency ;-(

johnny 97

It is a disgrace the way we are treated by these people, i really do think they get a kick out of this. I gave up e-mailing and ringing them, its the same answers all the time NO DECISION HAS BEEN MADE YET. Why? Dont hold your breath waiting for information from this lot.

ph3n0m666

I held my breath waiting on a reply before...but then I passed out

dr1nky

Anybody got any news? I have to see if it's going to be The Canaries or Courtown for holidays this year...

IrlCasey

Courtown, lucky for some - i'll be going to the chipper and back under my bridge with my bag'o chips'n batter burger if i have to wait any longer!!!!!!!!
Joking apart, they really are a bloody farce.

dr1nky

IrlCasey wrote: »

Joking apart, they really are a bloody farce.

....understatement!

I.P.O.E.U.

Can't understand why they don't issue a monthly bulletin on plain a4 paper rather than sending out infrequent expensive glossy brochures with plenty of legalese jargon .As regards the pension I signed up for a civil service pension back in the old P.O.E.B.days and nobody told me that I was signing off on that when the E.S.S.O.P.s was being being flogged to us all.Maybe it is time to set up our own association to represent us with unified voice rather we being individually ignored from on high.Even an occasional email giving reasonable reasons for non payment on the shares would assauge a lot of people's insecurities .

Sponge Bob

The bondholders are likely to own eircom within 6 months, thereby leaving the ESOT with nothing bar a few worthless shares and a pile of debt associated with the STT takeover and the increased shareholding in 2006. The ESOT staff will ensure that they themselves are taken care of, of course. Then they will blame the management for letting this happen.

The well is now dr because there is no money to fund the dividends that used to be disbursed to ESOP members. All the money is used to pay the €4bn of bonds.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0507/1224269865692.html

General secretary Stevie Fitzpatrick said the “perilous” financial situation of the company, allied to the loss of customers, was posing a threat to the future of the company and its 5,500 employees.
“If the company continues to lose market share and remains bound by overregulation, they will run into serious problems within the next six months and maybe earlier in trying to service that debt.”
The Employee Share Ownership Plan (Esop), whose beneficiaries include members of the union, owns 35 per cent of the company.

bohemian boy

well the union is being negitive , and the company is being positive , so who do you believe . what i find completely unacceptable is how so many former cwu officials have found their way into fulltime employment within esop . i have asked esop this question numerious times , and received no reply .

Sponge Bob

You will not get a reply either, they have no obligation to tell you anything. The ESOP is currently busy with important matters like Con Scanlons pension ( from the ESOP) and the same for the rest of the lads to top up their CWU pensions....which are considerable.

The also got eircom to sort the pension deficit that could threaten their eircom pensions.

They will be entitled to a generous gratuity from the ESOP too.

These are very important matters and they have no time to respond to the riff raff about the annual cheques while they sort them.

allend

bohemian boy wrote: »

well the union is being negitive , and the company is being positive , so who do you believe . what i find completely unacceptable is how so many former cwu officials have found their way into fulltime employment within esop . i have asked esop this question numerious times , and received no reply .

i have sent an email to fianna fail hq. about above and am awaiting reply.:cool:

allend

Sponge Bob wrote: »

You will not get a reply either, they have no obligation to tell you anything. The ESOP is currently busy with important matters like Con Scanlons pension ( from the ESOP) and the same for the rest of the lads to top up their CWU pensions....which are considerable.

The also got eircom to sort the pension deficit that could threaten their eircom pensions.

They will be entitled to a generous gratuity from the ESOP too.
These are very important matters and they have no time to respond to the riff raff about the annual cheques while they sort them.

i have sent an email to fianna fail hq. and am awaiting a reply.:cool:

Moro Man

I was wondering where the refugees from AskAboutMoney would seek asylum:D:D


No payment in June I suppose? ( and no discussion entered into over the phone )

I.P.O.E.U.

This unhealthy inter relationship between union ,company,and employee shares, should be the subject of an an external independent investigation.When high up company officials also held important union posts and could not see contradictions or conflicts of interest there is something rotten in the State of Denmark. Allowing the same union control of the pension fund after their performance on the various incarnations of the company leaves me as a pensioner full of fear and foreboding as to my future subsistence levels of income.

watty

IMO ESOT / ESSOP etc should never have existed. Ex Workers have uniquely been featherbedded compared to ANYONE in real Industry or private sector.

I blame the Government. They should have sold the network and retail separate, or even held onto Network and sold it later. The workers should not have been treated any different to any company changing ownership.

The taxpayer and the consumer has paid for this fiasco while ESOT / ESSOP has got millions for simply existing and Vulture Capitalists have stripped assets and walked off with billions in exchange for borrowing to buy the shares and investing nothing. Doing a small bit of capital expenditure out of revenue is not outside Investment. Not one shareholder/Owner since privatisation has so far been a net investor.

Hopefully STT will be a different & better situation.