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TODAY AND TOMORROW, Tesco workers in the Mandate union will be balloted on whether to take industrial action as the retail giant expresses its ‘disappointment’ at the move.
It is the second such vote to be taken in the last 12 months. Last April, union members voted overwhelmingly to strike over a two-tier contract system the company was reportedly hoping to instate.
That action came on the back of Labour Court recommendations which were rejected by Mandate members.
Tesco said at the time that such changes were necessary as employees working off pre-1996 contracts were causing the staffing roster to be unworkable.
The company asked all staff who had been working there since before 1996 to sign up to contracts for greatly-reduced pay. Possible industrial action was delayed through the intervention of the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
However, potential strike action is being threatened again as allegations have surfaced that the company plans to initiate the same Labour Court recommendations that were rejected by staff last March.
The ballot will apply to “a small selection, about 50″ of Tesco stores, according to Mandate.
Last week, Independents4Change TD for Dublin South Central Joan Collins raised the potential strikes during Leaders’ Questions in Dáil Éireann and claimed that Tesco plans to bypass Mandate and ‘unilaterally impose pay cuts of 15% on the company’s longest-serving workers’.
Currently, Tesco employs around 14,500 workers in Ireland.
Collins further claimed that those workers are facing a 15% pay cut, and that the move is part of a larger plan, known as ‘Project Black’, which “aims to get rid of 1,200 of the most secure and well-paid jobs in the company”. She described such actions as “both worrying and unnecessary”.
Mandate general secretary John Douglas meanwhile described the move as “bullying and intimidation”.
“Tesco is the largest employer in an increasingly low-paid private sector, so what it does matters,” Douglas said.
In deciding to bypass the union and impose cuts the company is undermining jobs that provide decent standards of living for workers and opening the door to conditions of insecurity and low-pay that exist in non-unionised parts of the retail sector.
‘Not accurate’
Ahead of this week’s ballot, Tesco has replied in no uncertain terms as to its displeasure with the pending union action.
“We are disappointed that Ms Collins did not contact Tesco to understand the details of this issue as her claims are not accurate,” the company said in a statement.
We have not imposed any terms as Ms Collins claims, the rate of pay will not change, around 280 people of our 14,500 workforce are affected not the number claimed, the proposed new terms and conditions are a Labour Court Recommendation and give full compensation to all in scope.
It is surprising that Mandate are balloting for industrial action in a small number of stores. Most unusually the union is rejecting a Labour Court Recommendation which it had sought and sets out a clear and generous resolution.
The company described the Labour Court recommendation as being “at the upper end of affordability”, but said it had accepted it “in the spirit of reaching agreement and re-positioning our business in the challenging retail market”.
The existence or otherwise of ‘Project Black’ was not mentioned in the company’s statement, despite a question regarding that alleged plan being put to it specifically by TheJournal.ie.
Reacting to the Tesco statement, Douglas said that workers are “living under the threat of substantial and significant reductions”.
Regarding ‘Project Black’, Douglas confirmed he was aware of the claims made by Collins in the Dáil that international legal firm Eversheds had been allegedly commissioned to draw up that plan.
“Tesco’s whole approach to this entire negotiation process has been very unusual,” he said.
Even last week they were due to meet the union on Wednesday, but the day prior the directors wrote to every employee implementing a 2% pay increase backdated to April, even though that offer was to be tabled the following day.
Likewise, with the Labour Court recommendations they agreed to those recommendations immediately.
“Yet this ignores the fact that 900 jobs are gone over the last year via quote-unquote voluntary redundancy, and those jobs haven’t been replaced,” he added.
The company wants to move to so-called ‘modern contracts’, but the whole thing is indicative of a dumbing-down of the negotiations process.
Response
Responding to these claims in turn, Tesco said: “The 2016 pay award was due on 1 April 2016 and by the end of January 2017 we decided that it was unfair to delay the announcement any further and so we announced that colleagues would receive a 2% award and a lump sum backdated to 1 April 2016.”
The following week, we met the Unions as planned to outline this decision which is in line with pay increases in the retail sector in 2016 and consistent with the 2015 Labour Court recommendation on pay. The 2% pay award for 2016 is the fourth consecutive annual pay award announced.
Regarding the pre-1996 contract issue, the company said:
“Tesco accepted the Labour Court recommendation which came at the end of 12 months of negotiations; Mandate has rejected it.”
The Labour Court recommendation protects rate of pay and in fact for 90% of people in scope they will receive a pay rise.
In the last 12 months over 700 people have opted to take voluntary redundancy and have received an average payment of €105,000.
At the same time we have given 3,500 existing colleagues a guaranteed minimum extra five hours per week creating better quality jobs and ensuring we have more colleagues working during the busiest times of the week.
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My Mrs works for Tesco and she loves the place. From what i can see they are very good to her with regards to extra hours if she wants them, shifts swaps, time off and so on. I am in my current job 3 years and no pay increase yet she is with Tesco 1 year and has has 2 with the current one getting back dated to last April. She goes to work, does her best and tries to be the best employee she can be which has got noticed and will hopefully help her get ahead but that’s just the way she is while others around her do the bare minimum, undermine management and appear to go out of their way to be awkward and unhelpfull. They are all the pre 96ers. If they go out on strike where will thst leave her? I know Tesco should honor all contracts but the staff should also be more flexible too.
Tesco staff are the highest paid supermarket staff with the best terms and conditions. Nobody has zero hour contracts, not one single person. Average contract hours is 30-35 guaranteed hours per week. People on less hours is because they can’t do more due to college etc.
The effected colleagues are less than 280 in total. Voluntary redundancy averaging €105,000 is an option to them and the labour court has made a recommendation which Tesco has accepted but the staff have rejected. This agreement includes a pay rise, flexibility on 2 of their 5 days and a 2 year buyout of any lost earnings plus €2,000 once off payment.
They expect thousands of others to support them so that these others can continue to be 100% flexible and the effected staff can hang on to their restrictive unsuitable hours and continue to freeload and the expense of others.
If they don’t want €105k payoff then just be flexible on 2 days. Take your pay rise and your €2k.
@Derek Lyster & Max, Good to see the PR department in and working hard. Don’t forget you’re the company who brought in Stobarts during your race to the bottom, how did that work out for you?
My Mrs works there too and the propaganda being spouted by management is disgusting. My wife is not a pre 96. It’s nothing to do with being flexible. It’s about tesco having the ability to alter terms and conditions whenever they like. My wife doesn’t want to strike but she will because if tesco change the terms of the pre 96 staff they will move onto the next type of contract and start again… Your wife will be caught up in this at some stage. Does she stand up now or get rolled over down the line
@max submit me the facts that tesco workers are the highest paid with best terms???
105k redundancy payoff is Media Spin by Tesco. My payment last year was significantly less than that and mean alot less. Alot of your “facts” are wrong, but I haven’t got time to even go into that.
@Jason Owens I am glad you have the feel good experience in a Tesco store as you well know know no two Tesco stores are the same under different local management I could point out stores where I know staff are not happy and doing their very best to get out but jobs are not easily come by so they are stuck
@ Revolting Peasant I don’t work for tesco, i don’t even shop there and i do believe that tesco should honor the contracts but i am a strong believer that sometimes people need to be flexible in work. I can only say that my wife is very happy there. If she do wishes there is a path there to further her career, like i said earlier they are flexible with her with regards hours and so on so she is happy out. Like everything in life there is spin from both sides
When did they buy Stobart?
Tesco and Dunnes are 2 cheeks of the same ar$e,both terrible companies with little or no regard for their own staff
I try to minimise my shop in both of those. Staff much happier in Aldi and the produce better quality for the most part.
Do you know how much the staff in Aldi get paid compared to Tesco? Genuine question.
It looks like Tesco want to move in beside Michael O Leary with zero hours contracts. Dunnes and Tesco are tarred with the one brush the workers are 100%correct not to trust them. Peter we are discussing staff contracts here and not what Tesco are selling.
@Avina Laaf: My understand is that Tesco and Dunnes pay the minimum wage but Aldi and Lidl pay the minimum “living” wage which is a couple of euro higher.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/aldi-to-pay-1150-minimum-wage-361311.html
No lover of Dunnes but the staff are actually well paid.
@Alan. There are no zero hour contracts. The staff are well paid!!!! It’s not like they went to college for this job!
@Jim Buckley. Majority of staff in store I work in are paid nearly €13 an our.
I’m not happy with this continued race to the bottom.
How come the rostering was workable for 21 years yet isn’t workable now.
Because the beancounter has decided some people cost too much.
Anyone on a pre 96 contract has worked in Tresco for at least 21 years. So over time will retire and nos reduce.
So eventually the company gets its savings
@EUGENE 70 percent: Peoples shopping habits have changed over the last 21 years. the big weekly shop is not as common now as it once was, and the weekends are a lot busier grocery shops than the mid 90s. As a result, weekends are treated as normal roster days for Tesco employees, except for the pre 1996 people, any weekend work for them is treated as overtime, regardless of the amount of work they have done mid week.
Do the Borg man .. that’s exactly why .. throw in the late evenings aswell .if you have ten people on those contracts sitting at the checkouts at 9 in the morning when the stores are empty , doesn’t make sense anymore. Not the staff’s fault but still not good business sense either
@Do the Bort man: Sundays are at overtime rate for everyone, Saturday’s are normal rate for everyone including pre 1996 staff. Where did you get that falseclaim from?
Yeah Fenrir but most of them won’t work weekends until December when they get triple time on Sunday’s!!
I finally stopped shopping in Tesco this year, all new staff, selection of goods constantly decreasing, not the shop I used to know, wouldn’t surprise me if some stores closed altogether!
those people who are pre-1996 have contracts that they and Tesco agreed to this is a fact it is the only fact that needs to be known
Tesco must honour said contracts
if workers decide to strike I will not cross the picket line
but if it came to a strike and I was one of the 1996 gang I personally would not trust any union
just saying like
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