MANDATE TRADE UNION members in Penneys retail stores have voted in favour of a new employment deal that will see an end to the under-18 rate of pay for teen staff.

Mandate said its members voted by a margin of 76 per cent in favour of the new deal, which it says “will put ‘decent work’ on the agenda for their workforce”.

Penneys employs approximately 4,500 workers across the Republic of Ireland.

The new agreement includes a new banded hours structure which will guarantee workers a minimum threshold of hours of work.

The new deal also includes:

• A 3 per cent pay increase retrospective to June 2013.
• The abolition of the under 18 rate of pay.

Mandate said that the company were looking to introduce a new lower wage scale for new entrants. This was resisted by Mandate and the unions’ position was upheld in the Labour Court’s recommendation.

Mandate Divisional Organiser Joe Donnelly said:

This deal will give our members protection of their established weekly earnings through the new banded hours contract. It means Penneys workers will have greater certainty and security in relation to their weekly income.

Donnelly said security of earnings through banded hours is a “huge step forward in Mandate’s campaign for decent work and a decent living wage in the retail sector”.

Read: “Remarkable year” for Penneys as revenue rises by 22 per cent>