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ALMOST 1,000 MANDATE Trade Union members in Tesco have voted emphatically in favour of industrial action by a margin of 98%.
With a turnout of 85% of all pre-1996 staff, Mandate says the ballot result “sends a strong message to Tesco that they cannot simply cut wages or conditions of employment for their workers without agreement”.
Tesco is asking all staff who have been working there since before 1996 to sign up to contracts for greatly-reduced pay.
Specifically, the new contracts will see affected staff being paid up to €3 less per hour than they are earning at present according to some of those affected.
On Monday, Siptu staff at the supermarket also voted for industrial action. Tesco Ireland employs around 14,500 workers in its 149 stores in the Republic of Ireland.
Tesco has accepted an invitation to attend the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) for a conciliation conference.
Mandate say they are cautiously welcoming Tesco’s commitment to attend the WRC but it “must be with the intention to genuinely engage”.
Gerry Light, Mandate Trade Union Assistant General Secretary said, “We’ve 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.”
Tesco earlier this week said that the pre-1996 contract was unworkable.
The pre-1996 contract was agreed over 20 years ago at a time when stores didn’t open weekends or late nights and as a result we now have too many colleagues rostered during our quietest days instead of our busiest.
“To improve customer service, we need to unlock the inflexibility in the pre-1996 contract which limits our ability to invest in having more colleagues working where our customers need and value them most.”
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Ffg and thier election bull has no ends
There is no end to what this government will do to try win votes. I hope people can see through this and vote these guys out for ever. These guys can only have their own greedy interests at hand. Remember the little kids in hospital with terrible pain from scoliosis and the money that was squandered on the bike shed and the RTE bail out and the most expensive hospital in the world that facilitated a developer to have an ever ending cash cow from this government. It’s a pity we don’t have laws like they have in America where these crooks would be in jail.
@Dave Barrett:
I think strengthen the Pedo laws should be a priority
before the election.
Just in case.
FF FG GP Bribery and Corruption Specialists .
@Jim Ryan:
Bribe away if it puts money in the people’s pockets
PS
IRELAND 15th on the list of LEAST corrupt counties in the world.
@H Woo: 193 countries in UN
Micheal Martin, trying to bankrupt the country a second time. It’s the fiannna fail way.
@Michael o connor: ffg one party, one agenda.
@Colette Byrne:
Sin. Fein, the one trick pony party.
@Michael o connor:
Sin Feins proposed spending over the years when added up would have wiped out the middle income families with the tax increases needed to finance their waffle.
Again, not targeted. Oh we do love giving away money, esp when it’s not theirs to give away. People need to wake up.
It’s a few years since we protested at Shannon Airport !!!!!!!
@Elizabeth Doyle:
Who cares?
Cue, the schools will exploit an opportunity to introduce a new voluntary charge, just wait!
More bribery, more freebies, more welfare handouts, more Hamas appeasement, more anti-West nonsense, more wacky environmental policies, more disrespecting of America, does this government have no end to their terrible policies? Is Simon Harris allergic to supporting any sort of policy that isn’t left-wing? This current government has been nothing more than a Statist leach, mooching off the taxpayer and their money. At some point, the people of Ireland will wake up and realise that they are being screwed over, but it looks like they are blinded once again and continue to stab themselves and their wallets in the chest. Harris and Varadkar are up there with Jack Lynch and Garret Fitzgerald as the person who was the worst Taoiseach in our nation’s history.
@Frank O’Hara:
That’s it, get it all up, yill be grand.
@H Woo: You haven’t offered any sort of coherent rebuttal to what I said. Is that because you know that I’m right?
Recognising Palestine is so hypocritical when aeroplanes carrying war equipment flies over Irish airspace and Shannon is used as a stopover.
@Hector turtlehead:
Good to see we play our little part keeping the the free world free
Fantastic news well done government
I see the Sinn Fein (kangaroo cult) bots are creeping back out
@John Nolan: You must have great eyesight to see them in the herds of pro FG & Trump bots …. Weird you haven’t noticed them !! FG supporting Trump bots man.. Like they do stand out, considering FG has always tried to liken SF and their supporters to Trump and his supporters in an attempt to smear them.. but now it’s a good thing when FG bots are supporting Trump bots ..
have your say