Up to 200 Lloyds Pharmacy workers to strike on Thursday

Up to 200 workers at 30 Lloyds Pharmacy stores in the Republic will strike for an hour on Thursday in a dispute over pay and trade union recognition.

Trade union Mandate members at the chain voted overwhelmingly for industrial action in a recent ballot.

Mandate said that up to 200 staff at 30 Lloyds pharmacies will stop work for an hour from 10am on Thursday.

The union said that it chose 30 stores only to cause as little inconvenience as possible to the public, but warned that the action could escalate if the company did not respond to workers’ demands.

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"We are asking customers of Lloyds Pharmacy to please support the workers and obtain their medicines from an alternative supplier while this dispute is taking place," said Gerry Light, Mandate assistant general secretary.

The dispute is over pay and recognition. Lloyds does not recognise unions, but has a staff negotiating body called the Colleague Representative Committee.

Lloyds said that Mandate’s decision to strike was disappointing given the progress that the company had made in talks with the committee.

The company says that it has agreed salary increases, a sick pay scheme and to eliminate the minimum wage in recent talks.

A further stage of those talks will involve exploring other improvements including pay scales.

Pat Watt, Lloyds director said: "It is extremely regrettable that Mandate has pushed ahead with industrial action, two weeks after a positive breakthrough which sees increased pay and benefits for the full team".