Tesco workers serve strike warning in response to changes

Retail workers at Tesco Ireland who are members of Siptu have voted in favour of industrial action including strike action from next Monday.

The move is in response to a move by the company to change terms, including guaranteed overtime, for staff with pre-1996 contracts.

In a statement, Tesco said these contracts no longer met company needs, such as Sunday or late-night opening. As a result the company said it had too many staff rostered during the quietest days instead of at the busiest trading times.

Overtime

The statement said Tesco wanted to change “guaranteed overtime, which doesn’t take account of the needs of each store or give colleagues an equal opportunity to work overtime when it arises”.

The company said in order “to unlock this inflexibility in our business”, it proposed to move all pre-1996 staff onto “modern” contracts that were “agreed in 2006 with the trade unions as part of a collective agreement”.

It said the change affected over 6 per cent of workers.

Tesco said it would compensate those affected for loss of earnings, with terms to be finalised in coming weeks. The move was not about job losses as the retailer had “a job for everybody”. It hoped to begin discussions with unions immediately.

Bonus scheme

However, Siptu accused the company of refusing to fully implement a Labour Court recommendation of February 19th to give all retail staff a 2 per cent pay increase and a 1.5 per cent share bonus scheme payment.

Sector organiser Teresa Hannick said Tesco was instead “attempting to enforce pay cuts of between 15 per cent and 35 per cent” from April 18th, “along with other changes to work patterns and loss of bonuses, on long-serving staff”.

Siptu said it was a situation workers could not accept.

“The failure of management to engage in meaningful discussions with our members regarding this issue and its refusal to attend a Labour Court hearing has left them with no option but to take industrial action,” Ms Hannick said.

The industrial action is planned to begin on Monday, April 18th, should Tesco go ahead with the changes.