Tesco Ireland workers to ballot for industrial action

Tesco Ireland workers are to ballot for industrial action after the company was accused of ignoring a recent Labour Court ruling on staff pay increases.

In its decision earlier this year the court recommended a 2 per cent pay rise for 14,500 Tesco workers backdated to April 2015 after the Mandate and Siptu trade unions agitated for increases of 3 per cent.

Mandate, which represents some 12,000 Tesco workers, claims there has been a lack of cooperation by the company on the issue of pay increases for around 1,000 members of staff, who the union says are instead facing a 15 per cent salary reduction effective within the next month.

Commenting on the upcoming ballot, which is due to be held "over the coming weeks" and may result in industrial action up to and including strikes, Mandate general secretary John Douglas accused the company of committing a "terrible abuse of power".

“Tesco behaviour towards their workers over the last year has been atrocious,” he said.

“This has to be seen for what it is, an attack on low-paid workers by a very profitable multinational retailer who are trying to increase their profits at the expense of their long-serving staff in Ireland,” he added.

Mr Douglas further accused the multinational of expecting its Irish employees to pay for “bad investments” he says have been made by Tesco’s parent company in Britain.

In response, Tesco Ireland said it has already paid a 1.5 per cent cash lump sum to eligible employees in keeping with the spirit of the Labour Court recommendation

It said 1,000 workers who have been with the business since before 1996 are being moved onto a new contract to “unlock inflexibility in the business”.

“It is really disappointing that the trade union has decided to adopt this position when the vast majority of our store colleagues have received the benefits of the recent Labour Court recommendation,” said a spokeswoman.

“Our pre-1996 contract doesn’t meet the needs of today’s customers and was agreed 20 years ago at a time when Sundays or late nights were not commonplace in retail,” she added.