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STRIKES ARE SET to take place outside over 30 Lloyds Pharmacy stores in Ireland tomorrow and Tuesday, despite the company agreeing on a new deal with staff last week.
Mandate – which says it represents 270 workers at the company – has said the strike can be resolved if Lloyds Pharmacy “simply agrees to meaningful negotiations” with their workers’ representatives.
Lloyds Pharmacy last week issued a statement outlining it has agreed on a new deal with staff which delivers pay increases, additional benefits, the implementation of banded working hours and a voluntary severance packages.
The deal, it said, followed negotiations with its employee negotiating body, the Colleague Representative Committee (CRC).
Furthering on from this, the company announced a voluntary severance scheme for its employees, which it said is a once-off measure to help support the long-term sustainability of the business.
Under the programme, staff opting to leave would be provided with five weeks gross weekly pay per year of service, with total payment capped at €100,000.
As previously reported by Fora, Lloyds Pharmacy and Mandate attended a Labour Court hearing at which the union sought various changes to pay, contracts and annual leave entitlements.
The dispute centres around employee pay and conditions, with Mandate and workers having four main claims, which are:
Lloyds Pharmacy, which employs more than 1,000 people at 90 Irish stores, doesn’t recognise Mandate and told the Labour Court it deals with issues around employment terms and conditions through CRC, Fora reported.
In its statement last week, Lloyds Pharmacy said pay increases for all staff range from 1.5% to 11% and that no staff member will now be on less than €10.60 per hour.
The company has called on Mandate to withdraw its threatened strike action for next week and future months.
“Strike action is unwarranted and irresponsible given out 92 pharmacies’ vital healthcare role in serving the needs of customers and vulnerable patients,” Lloyds Pharmacy director of sales and marketing Pat Watt said.
We are calling on Mandate not to strike this week, but if they do, we have contingency plans in place and our committed employees will work to minimise disruption. In particular, we will make sure no patient who needs a prescription will be left without.
At least five stores closed
Despite the new pay deal announced last week, David Gibney, communications officer at Mandate told TheJournal.ie this afternoon that the trade union members feel that “what the company has given so far … is inadequate”.
“Our members don’t feel that senior management in Lloyds represent them or their best interests, so they’ve decided that they are opposed to the deal,” Gibney said.
“They want the company to sit down and negotiate with an independent representative body, mainly Mandate Trade Union.”
Mandate has today warned the public that at least five Lloyds Pharmacy outlets will be closed for tomorrow and Tuesday.
These stores include: Tonlegee and Coolock in Dublin 5, Killester in Dublin 3, Crumlin in Dublin 12 and Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
More than 30 other stores will also have official pickets placed outside them.
Mandate has said it is regrettable and disappointing that the strikes must go ahead.
“We’re looking for the company to sit down and negotiate with the workers’ representatives in Mandate Trade Union in relation to a range of issues including pay, sick pay, annual leave and public holiday entitlements, among other issues … a pay scale that is sufficient,” Gibney said.
A list of stores striking over the coming days can be found here.
Lloyds Pharmacy has been contacted for comment.
With reporting by Adam Daly.
Chris Evans more than twice as much as Graham Norton!? There’s more than sexism going on there!
@John Walker: You should bear in mind that that doesn’t include his talk show.
The BBC pay his Production Company which then pays him (or he pays himself…….. if you know what I mean).
I suspect that’s a damn GOOD salary over and above his actual BBC salary.
@John Walker:
Chris Evans is an irrepressible genius, he’s ginger, he’s original, creative, cutting edge, climbing the greasy pole of stardom trough sheer force of personality, money is not his goal, he’s already blown 80 million on cars and booze, when he began dating Billy Piper he bought her a silver Ferrari full of roses, she couldn’t even drive, Chris is car crash TV, when he gets bored he goes drinking and gets sacked then starts again, Chris personifies the idiom ‘You can’t keep a good man down’.
Compared to Chris Graham Norton is pure tedium.
@John Walker: being a good negotiator?
“The BBC’s highest paid woman is Claudia Winkleman”
Who? Exactly.
I 100% agree with equal work for equal pay. But you can’t compare salaries for people who have different levels of exposure, higher ratings, and different jobs on different shows. That’s not comparing like with like.
The only fair comparison here would be to compare 2 BBC news readers – since they actually have the same job on the same show & do the same amount of work.
@Conor Byrne: When you look at the likes of Chris Evans and Graham Norton who both had successful radio and TV shows last year when these contracts were paid. The large salaries they can command are based soley around their personalities rather than something like a large popular show like Come Dancing which, though popular, is not centered around any one personality.
For this reason the “stars” can command the big money and, rightly or wrongly, that’s just the way it is. Inevitably this will be compared to America where the “Stars” can command many times these salaries and women like Oprah and Judge Judy Sheindlin earn vast sums us mere mortals can only dream of. It’s not sexism, it’s just business, and the entertainment business is cut throat.
Jaysus, when Tubridy and Duffy and company hear about this there is bound to be a strike. They aren’t on anywhere near that cash
@Nick Allen: per head of listenership and population, the BBC presenters are on less than their RTE counterparts.
@Nick Allen:
Given the difference in population,shouldn’t Duffy,Untidy,etc be on a fifteenth of what Norton(a real presenter ) makes..around 60,000 seems fair..
@Dermot Lane: Yes – but there are dozens and dozens of stations, from regional to specialist.
@Nick Allen: the Tv licence isnt been used to pay the BBC crew tho, and there would be a slightly higher viewship for the BBC than RTE
@Fank Pulman: true but Evans gets 15 million on BBC
That’s F ing Scandalous!!!
Chris Evans £2million++ He should be pushed onto some obscure satellite tv channel somewhere not paid that much for nothing!
@Dub_Right: Evans entertains over twice the population of our country – everyday on BBC radio, as well as a good few here!!
@Dub_Right: i dont like him at all, he was a disaster on top gear but he has 15 million listeners !
@Dub_Right: Probably includes his Top Gear contract for the year in question.
@Fank Pulman: Evans has over 15 million listeners.
Claudia Winkleman earns almost half a million £££ per year – utterly mind boggling.
@John Ryan:
She spends almost as much on makeup to be fair
I see Graham’s agent negotiating a healthy pay rise at the next contract discussions
@Nick Allen: Doubt it, he get’s paid for his talk show via his Production company. His BBC salary would be for things like Eurovision etc.
Probably the best broadcasting organisation in the world. It won’t stop wingers here winging though.
How much is Bana of Aleppo on? The young girl ‘tweeting’ from Aleppo in Syria about the bad man Assad; a story pushed by the BBC and most other MSM? All the while her father was a local nusra man(terrorist) and her mother, an English teacher, put words in the little girls tweets and used her daughter as a propaganda tool against the Assad Government.
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/07/18/uk-column-news-western-media-continue-to-cash-in-on-the-bana-of-aleppo-myth/
The BBC have always done lite entertainment well. Well done. However on the other side, they have been instrumental in the death and destruction of millions of people across the world in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, as lead propagandists for the industrial military complex of the UK and US and their allies.
I’m sorry but what does Chris Evans actually do for the BBC?
@Sorcha Hendry:
Brings in 15 million listeners to his radio show.
Actually, it’s just over 9 million, but I take your point.
@Tweety McTweeter: Good radio show it is too – I’m still listening to BBC Radio 2 all day at work (except for Jeremy Vine, podcasts fill that gap) since last Christmas – great music choice (with minimal repeats!), the lack of sports news and, especially, ads, means I would never go back to Irish commercial radio. The pay mentions today may be high in some cases, but is more than justified in most, especially when competing with attempted poaching by the commercial sector.
Got to love Linekar. King of the cheesy pun.
@methodical2020:
The BBC make some great programs for both TV and radio
Is nobody gonna mention Stephen Nolan being one of the highest paid in the UK 400-499,000 per year!?! You know Nolan, the fat guy on BBC NI that shouted at a politician via video link on that Miriam Callaghan show a while back…How is his wage justified?
@Meanderingsz: He broadcasts every week day on BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio 5 Live from Thursday to Sunday and presents his own live TV show from Belfast!
Happily his weight doesn’t effect the excellent content of his shows.
Jaysus Ryan Turbidity is a bargain – sponsored by RTE
How can RTE keep our stars , when the BBC is paying ‘proper’ salaries ? Please dont send this article to Tubbs or Marian ….
That’s Racist
@Jonathan Stapleton: The other BBC.
LOL! Comments of the week.
Chris Evans and Graham Norton worth every pound
Is it any wonder the toothy chap can buy Ferraris at 20 million a pop
The mind boggles
When will we see how much we pay our creaturs?? And when will they get reasonable rates?
The real question here is who the hell is Jermey Vine?
@Daniel Murray: BBC Radio 2 show between 12 and 2 weekdays. I listen to Radio 2 every day at work, but I skip his slot with podcasts – not my scene, but he’s obviously popular enough in the UK.
And linekar still feels the need to advertise crisps
Gary Lineker on £1.7 million? There are footballers who…. oh wait. Sorry.
Pity they couldn’t have a Transfer Market like in the Soccer Leagues,
Turgid Tubridy needs to go there to get paid commensurate to his talents…
@George Salter: Guess why all the “stars” are still at RTE… actually, RT stood in for Graham Norton on his BBC Radio 2 show last year – not sure how it went, but I see that Alan Carr and Mel Sykes are doing it this year.
two fools to be honest……victims of ZIONIST extremism !!
How the hell can the BBC even employ that human disaster zone that is Victoria Derbyshire ? Every single human tragedy story is jumped upon and squeezed for every bit of drama and sensational aspect she can find….She,and her production team,are purveyors of human suffering and couldn’t give the tiniest of damns about the people in terrible situations that they cruelly exploit
Who cares . I for one haven’t heard of any of them in years . Let them off
to be honest what person in thier right mind give a f** about these two muppets ? seriously ? c’mon journal surely your better than this shiiiiiiiiite !!!
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