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Updated 21.07
A UNION REPRESENTING 11,000 of Tesco’s Irish employees says it will call off the pending workers strikes if Tesco “commits not to make changes to contracts without agreement”.
Nine Tesco stores have voted to strike ‘indefinitely’ from this Tuesday over issues surrounding the contracts of the company’s longest-serving Irish workers.
A further nine stores will strike from 17 February.
Tesco has moved to impose newer ‘modern contracts’ on those employees remaining who have been employed since before 1996, claiming that those contracts are no longer fit for purpose.
Those contracts would see longer-term employees “experiencing reduced incomes of up to 20%,” Mandate’s general secretary John Douglas said this evening.
“In recent days, Tesco Ireland have said that the impending strikes are not justified because they have not yet actually made the contractual changes,” he said.
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,” he added.
Tesco’s actions “constitute an abuse of the company’s considerable economic power” according to Douglas who added that “an important principle is at stake”.
Tesco’s response
Tesco responded this evening and does not seem to have changed its stance towards the pending industrial action.
“Tesco continues to call on Mandate to accept the recent Labour Court recommendation as the only means of resolving this dispute. The company is shocked that Mandate has organised strike action in a handful of our stores on Tuesday after the Union has rejected the outcome of the State’s industrial relations process which they had insisted on following,” the company said in a statement.
Tesco has not made any changes to the pre-1996 terms and conditions and the Labour Court recommendation sets out a clear path to resolving this issue and we call upon Mandate to now accept the Labour Court recommendation.
The company has followed all the industrial relations processes of the State to seek agreement. The recommendation protects colleagues’ rate of pay with 90 per cent actually getting a pay increase under the Labour Court proposals.
We believe now more than ever that there is an onus on Mandate to abide by the outcomes of the Labour Court which is the agreement the Union, had sought. Tesco continues to call on Mandate to re-think its plan to damage the company with an unjustified strike.
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Private sector.. prepare to be hammered! You will support the public sector.
Do you actually know anyone in the public sector? I do, most of them take home about €400.
I do, but people I know are all on €50k+. They are actually laughing at how much they are being paid for “scratching their arse”
I bet you could count the amount of people you like that on one hand with three fingers and a thumb cut off.
You know…sorry
My wages are now down below €400 a week
Howlin can promise what he wants. But its out of his control. If the economy does not grow, and there are no more bailouts from the IMF/ECB , then he just won’t have the money to pay the public sector pay bill.
Looks like the public sector is in for another round of bashing. Lets do a poll! What services do people want to see cut, and what services are you prepared to pay private companies directly for?
No pay cuts, no income tax rises, no cuts to social welfare. How will they pull this off?
Two words- Roscommon Hospital.
There are at least three more budgets in this austerity plan. The Public Sector has already been hit hard so they will be left alone this year ( other than having to pay water charges, property tax like everyone else).
But come budget 2012 or 2013 they will undoubtedly be attacked again.
They have said that before, they promise but never keep them.
ekhm… Why not?
The reason for the possible cut is that taxes are not large enough to pay the costs of government and social welfare. The gap between revenue and spending is not being closed fast enough.
Another agreement delivered on by the ICTU unions
The new Fianna Fail – they fail to see the herd of elephants standing in front of them. Yet the Germans can see our herd of elephants from the far side of Europe. I hear One elephant is called ICTU and another is called IBEC – any other names fir the rest of the hers are welcome.
Why is the gov making promises? Is there an election coming, yes there is. When we have a new pres will the position change.
The public sector must share the pain like the rest of us Minister !
You’ll be downvoted for that comment. Most of them spend the day on here instead of working.
Dont be fooled, the Gov are seeking other ways to get the revenue, indirect taxes. Its a way of avoiding directly confronting workers but make no mistake there will be less money in our pockets. Add to this interest rate increases, continually rising unemployment thus increased Gov expenditure….not sustainable…….unless of course we stop putting money into dead banks or EU and start putting it into the country…..
have your say