THERE is a strong possibility that Dunnes Stores workers may reject the latest deal arranged to settle their two week strike.
The votes of the 7,000 workers are being counted today, and it is now expected that the majority for, or against, acceptance will be very tight.
It workers reject the terms it is likely that the dispute will become protracted and increasingly bitter.
It had been expected that workers would accept the terms after they were overwhelmingly endorsed by their shop stewards at a meeting last Tuesday. But the Mandate trade union has confirmed that there was strong criticism of the agreement at mass meetings held around the State over the past three days to explain its terms and enable members to vote.
Mandate's national officer, Mr Maurice Sheehan, said yesterday the two main issues were trust and the concession by the unions that the company could recruit new full time staff on the basis of a seven day week instead of the existing six day week. The significance of the latter proposal is that new full time staff would have compulsory Sunday working and be paid only time and a half for it.
The change would apply even to existing long serving part time staff who at present receive double time for Sunday work if they choose to work Sundays. "There's a huge amount of resentment that the company has won this concession, which is an amendment to last year's Labour Court recommendation," said Mr Sheehan.
The quid pro quo, whereby the company has offered to increase the actual number of extra full time jobs to be created from 200 to 400, does not seem to have assuaged the anger of the strikers.
But a more fundamental problem, Mr Sheehan concedes, is the trust factor. "People ask if we can trust the company and we have to say there are no cast iron guarantees."
One union activist said that to describe the feeling of the strikers as anger "is an understatement." Shop stewards who attended last Tuesday's meeting had been focused on the issues, but people on the picket lines were still bursting with resentment at the company. "They are like people who have been let off jail for two weeks and they don't want to go back."
One man involved in the dispute said: "A lot of people are asking `Who is Andrew Street?' They want Margaret Heffernan's name on the agreement because they don't know if Mr Street is going to be around to see if it is being honoured in a year's time."
While Mandate is still optimistic that the vote will be in favour, it is bracing itself for a continuation of the dispute.
A spokesman for Dunnes Stores said it would not comment on the ballot ahead of the count but the company remained committed to the agreement. It is expected that Dunnes Stores outlets will begin opening from Monday if the vote is for acceptance.