ESB STAFF BACK PLAN TO SAVE €140m A YEAR - ESB workers have voted in favour of a €140 million a year savings plan that includes cutting 1,000 jobs and reductions in overtime and other payments, writes the Irish Times. The State-owned energy group - which employs more than 7,000 - confirmed yesterday that a majority of staff backed the plan in a company-wide ballot carried out at the end of last month. The plan calls for 703 voluntary redundancies and also provides that the company will not replace 294 staff due to retire between now and 2015. The company hopes the job reductions will save €83.6 million a year. It wants to save a further €56.4 million through measures such as cutting overtime, ending performance-related pay for staff, managers and executives, and reducing subsistence payments. The ESB said yesterday that the payroll cuts and a wider savings plan would reduce its cost base by €280 million by 2015. The company’s executive director, sustainability and human resources, John Campion, welcomed the ballot’s result yesterday. “This will ensure that the company can continue to invest in national critical infrastructure while remaining competitive in electricity and gas markets,” Mr Campion said. The head of the company’s group of unions, Brendan Ogle, said the vote was “appropriate” in the current economic climate.
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NAMA YET TO GET EU NOD FOR MORTGAGES WITH NEGATIVE EQUITY PROTECTION - NAMA does not have the go-ahead from the European Commission for its "negative equity protected" mortgages, a full year after the scheme was first mooted, the Irish Independent has learned. Last night a spokesman for the agency confirmed that the commission had not yet signed off on the plan. Approval for the scheme is expected "imminently", the spokesman said -- but that has now been the case for a number of months. It means the toxic debt agency is now certain to miss the latest planned launch date of early April for the scheme. That time scale was set out by Finance Minister Michael Noonan in response to a Dail question last month. It's the third major deadline slip since the scheme was originally announced. The so-called NAMA mortgages are designed to coax nervous home buyers back into the property market. NAMA will agree in advance to write off up to 20% of a home loan if house prices fall over the next five years. Under the plans, home buyers will take out a normal mortgage from Bank of Ireland, AIB or TSB to buy a home from NAMA. The bad bank will defer being paid 20% of the price for five years, and if house prices fall it will "forgive" part of the home loan. The bank would then recalculate the remaining mortgage for the buyer. If house prices rise or stay the same, the full mortgage will have to be paid as normal. NAMA wants to launch an initial pilot scheme with 750 homes, before rolling it out on a bigger scale.
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OBAMA MAKES CASE FOR ‘BUFFETT RULE’ - Barack Obama laid out his case for a minimum tax on the wealthiest Americans on Tuesday, doubling down on his bet that fiscal fairness will be a winning platform in this year’s presidential election, writes the Financial Times. “The share of our national income going to the top 1% has climbed to levels we haven’t seen since the 1920s,” Mr Obama said at a campaign-style speech in Boca Raton, Florida. “The folks who are benefiting from this are paying taxes at one of the lowest rates in 50 years.” Mr Obama is promoting the “Buffett rule”, which would set a minimum tax of 30% on the income of millionaires, as he attempts to establish a stark contrast with Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger and a former private equity executive. The measure is named after Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who has called for higher taxes on the wealthy after noting he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary because of preferential tax treatment for capital gains and dividend income. Ahead of Mr Obama’s speech, Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House council of economic advisers, argued the measure would prevent distortions in the US economy, help tackle rising income inequality and contribute to deficit reduction. “It makes very good tax policy,” he said, “and makes all the better tax policy at a time when the market is driving more and more income into the hands of the very wealthiest in the US and when the federal government needs more revenue.”
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ROW GROWS OVER BARCLAYS CHIEF'S PAY AND £5.7m TAX BILL - Controversy surrounding the pay of the chief executive of Barclays, Bob Diamond - and his £5.7m tax bill - intensified on Tuesday night when a leading group of shareholders were warned about problems with his remuneration package. The Guardian says that the Association of British Insurers, whose members control around 15% of the stock market, issued an "amber top" warning over possible breaches of corporate governance codes. The move by the influential ABI follows a call by investor advisory body Pirc that Diamond should not receive a bonus on top of his £1.3m salary, because of the underperformance of the bank. Some shareholders, such as Standard Life, Aviva and Scottish Widows, are already believed to be considering voting against the remuneration report. The ABI is understood to be highlighting two issues with Diamond's pay, which reached £17m in 2011 when deals from previous years were cashed in. First, it points out that Diamond himself described the bank's performance in 2011 as "unacceptable" when it failed to reach targets for returns to shareholders. Second, the ABI highlights the bank's decision to pay £5.7m to the exchequer on behalf of Diamond. The bank paid the tax bill as it was incurred when Diamond relocated from New York to London after his promotion to chief executive in January 2011.
