Strike Action At Tesco Stores To Go Ahead

Indefinite strike action will begin at 7am on Thursday 26 May at 70 Tesco stores across Ireland.

The strikes will go ahead following the breakdown in talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), the Mandate Trade Union said.

However, Mandate said that the strike was avoidable "provided the company either withdraws their threats to force changes to pay and conditions of employment for their workers without agreement or attends the Labour Court for an impartial third party hearing".

According to the union, Tesco management are attempting to force changes to workers' conditions of employment including:

• 15-35% pay cuts

• The slashing of overtime

• Cuts to Sunday and unsociable hour's premiums from double pay to time and a half

• A reduction in the annual bonus

• Changes to rosters

Mandate Assistant General Secretary Gerry Light said: "Tesco management have failed to provide any evidence to justify making changes to workers' conditions of employment without agreement, and that's clearly why they haven't agreed to attend the Labour Court. Mandate and Tesco not only have an agreement to attend the Labour Court in such circumstances, we have a long history of that practice being utilised successfully in the past."

He added: "To say to a group of workers 'we're cutting your pay by up to 25 percent and we don't have to give you evidence or justify those cuts' is a shameful way to treat workers who have built the company to what it is over more than twenty years. For us, and our members, the situation is very clear. Tesco are attempting to increase already significant profits at the expense of their longest serving workers."

(MH)