SIPTU has strongly condemned what they see as the bullying approach adopted by the management of Tesco in attempting to force long-serving staff members out of their jobs, and its failure to attend a Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) meeting in Bloomfield Hotel, Mullingar on Monday night, 25 April, to discuss the ongoing dispute at the supermarket chain.
The dispute centres on around 1,000 workers who hold pre-1996 contacts of employment, involving higher rates of pay than those applicable to staff recruited after 1996.
Representatives for Tesco failed to appear at the meeting in Bloomfield Hotel, where the discussion centred on proposed changes to staff contracts.
The meeting was attended by SIPTU members from the stores it represents which are Portlaoise, Cavan, Edenderry, Mullingar, Athlone, Douglas in Cork and in-store butchers throughout the country.
Also in attendance was the National Negotiations Committee, made up of shop stewards from all the stores as well as SIPTU officials.
Speaking to Topic, SIPTU Organiser, Derek Casserly said he believes that the reason for Tesco management delaying the WRC meeting is to provide the company with more time to “intimidate our members into leaving the company.”
“We were offered the date, 25 April, a couple of weeks ago which both unions (Mandate and SIPTU) accepted. However we only found out late last week that they wouldn’t be attending until 9 May.
“Tesco said when they announced this on 26 January they would sit down with the unions but they have been very disingenuous and have not engaged at all with them despite repeated requests from the unions and the WRC to do so. They constantly kick the can down the road.”
“How Tesco couldn’t have attended yesterday’s WRC hearing is beyond me,” he said.
He believed the reason for the company’s failure to attend was to enable them to intimidate staff that have indicated they wish to remain in the business. “They are putting huge pressure on them on a daily basis and being told that their terms and conditions will be cut if they don’t give in to their demands. It’s a form of psychological torture what they’re doing to their staff.”
Horror Stories
Mr. Casserly said that one of the biggest stories to emerge from the meeting was the amount of fear that Tesco have generated among their staff. “It’s shocking for a major multi-national with major profits to treat the people who stuck with them through thick and thin like this, the people who built the company up to what it is today in this country. To treat them like that is nothing short of immoral.”
Mr. Casserly, who has not been able to contact Tesco since the end of March, said those in attendance at the closed meeting heard ‘horror stories’ about the management telling staff employed before 1997 that they would experience pay cuts of up to 35% and have their rosters and hours unilaterally changed on 16 May if they did not accept a management defined redundancy package by yesterday.
“It’s putting massive pressure on people. We had one couple talking last night who work together in the same store, who said they simply could not afford to live on the wage that Tesco would now be offering them, if they decided to stay. At the same time, they’re in a desperate predicament because they have a mortgage and what they would get in the redundancy wouldn’t finish off that mortgage. This is being replicated up and down the country from Tesco staff with people caught between a rock and a hard place. It’s quite obvious that Tesco wants them off the pitch and don’t seem to care what kind of hardship they are going to cause them.”
Industrial action
Mr. Casserly said that industrial action will go ahead if the changes are implemented. He said that the staff and unions agree the only way to avoid such action was to ensure the terms and conditions of those who chose to stay working remain unchanged. “Tesco have refused that request and said they will be moving people over to the new contract if they don’t accept redundancy, so we will be going into dispute with them if and when that happens.”
He said that as a result of the meeting, staff were more determined than ever to fight the proposed changes. “Tesco’s treatment of their long-serving staff has only galvanised people’s resolve to fight this. We balloted all our members, not just the pre-’97 staff, and 94 per cent were in favour industrial action if the changes go ahead. That’s a resounding display of solidarity from all the Tesco members.”
Tesco says
Tesco Ireland said that the pre-1996 contract was agreed at a time when its stores did not open on weekends or late nights and as a result, it now has too many of its staff rostered during its quietest days.
Tesco has claimed that 700 staff have accepted a voluntary redundancy package.
“Feedback from our colleagues was that the voluntary redundancy offer was generous and fair,” the company stated. “Over 70% of our pre-1996 colleagues have now accepted voluntary redundancy.
“We continue to focus on implementing this change for our remaining pre-1996 colleagues which takes effect from 16 May and will continue to engage colleagues on this issue in advance of this date.”
Local Comment
TD Willie Penrose again called on Tesco to “withdraw this threat to change the conditions of employment without agreement, and to meaningfully engage with the workers’ representatives, their trade unions, and utilise the State’s industrial relations machinery, the Labour Court, if neccessary. It is the least these loyal employees deserve. There is an opportunity of doing so now, before 15 May.”