About 1,000 long-serving staff at retailer Tesco have voted overwhelmingly for strike action in a row over plans by the company to reduce their terms and conditions.
Tesco said it was disappointed at the result of the ballot of staff employed at the company prior to 1996.
It indicated it was prepared to attend a conciliation conference at the Workplace Relations Commission in a bid to resolve the row.
The dispute centres on proposals by Tesco to move staff employed before 1996 to a different contract introduced for personnel taken on after that date.
The pre-1996 contract involves higher rates of pay and better conditions than those set out in the subsequent contract.
The trade unions Mandate and Siptu, which represent staff, said workers would lose out under the company’s planned initiative due to the lower pay provisions and more flexible working hours contained in the post-1996 contract.
Tesco said on Friday it was proposing to move staff on the pre-1996 contract “to our main contract, which already covers the vast majority of our workforce, as the pre-1996 contract means we have too many colleagues working during the early quieter times of the week and not enough during the busiest”.
The retailer deferred plans to move the pre-1996 staff to the main contract until May 16th.
On Thursday, Tesco announced it would pay staff affected by the move to the post-1996 contract 2.5 their annual loss of earnings.
Voluntary redundancy
The company also opened a voluntary redundancy scheme offering five years per year of service, uncapped, to workers who wanted to leave the company.
Mandate said on a turnout of 85 per cent, 99 per cent of its members on pre-1996 contracts had voted in favour of industrial action.
It said the ballot result sent a strong message to Tesco that they could not “simply cut wages or conditions of employment for their workers without agreement”.
The union said it “cautiously welcomed” Tesco’s commitment to attend the Workplace Relations Commission but warned it “must be with the intention to genuinely engage”.
Mandate assistant general secretary Gerry Light said: "We have now served notice on the company that our members intend to strike in the event the company proceeds with their plans to cut wages or alter the contracts of employment without agreement.
“It’s a pity it took until the declaration of our ballot before the company accepted the invitation to attend the Workplace Relations Commission, especially when you consider we wrote to the company more than a month ago. It seems the company was waiting for the result of the ballot before they agreed to engage, but better late than never.”
Siptu sector organiser Teresa Hannick said: "That the company has begun to move into a position of treating its workers with respect and negotiating any changes to their conditions of employment is completely due to the united front Siptu members in the company have shown in recent weeks.
“At the beginning of this week, Siptu members served notice of industrial action on the company. This display of worker unity would seem to have concentrated the minds of the Tesco management team.”
