Tesco has affirmed that all its Irish stores will remain open today, 14 February, despite strike action being called at eight of its outlets over a pay dispute involving a some 250 workers on contracts dating back more than 20 years.
In a statement, Tesco said that it was ‘shocked’ that Mandate Trade Union was going ahead with what it describes as an “unjustified” strike.
‘Despite the actions of Mandate, the company has not made any changes to the pre-1996 terms and conditions of the 250 workers at the centre of the dispute,’ Tesco said.
‘Tesco is prepared to abide by the Labour Court Recommendation in relation to this small number out of our 14,500-strong workforce and is calling on Mandate to do the same. We have always sought to do this by agreement and have spent 13 months in discussions with Mandate.
On Sunday, the union said that ‘if Tesco Ireland commits to not making changes to its workers’ contracts without agreement, then Tuesday’s impending indefinite strike […] could be called off’.
“In recent days, Tesco Ireland have said that the impending strikes are not justified because they have not yet actually made the contractual changes,” commented John Douglas, Mandate’s General Secretary.
“In response, last Friday Mandate wrote to the management of Tesco Ireland saying that if they committed to not making changes to their staff’s contracts without agreement with them – rather than trying to impose change unilaterally – then the strike due to start on Tuesday could be called off. Unfortunately, to date we have had no response from Tesco Ireland to our letter.”
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
