Mandate has confirmed that further strike action will take place at the 76 branches of Tesco on Thursday, as well as Thursday and Friday in the following week.
|
|
Further strikes expected
|
The escalation in the dispute follows a statement early this morning by Tesco which said it had deferred its position on the existing pay proposals as a result of continued industrial action by the trade unions representing the workers.
In the statement Tesco said it was "inappropriate" that staff should ballot on pay proposals made at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) on May 14th while industrial action continues.
The company also said it would review the proposals following the termination of the current industrial action.
Mandate said the new stoppages were a direct result of the company’s failure to address the low-pay issue as well as its failure to table formal proposals on its pay offer made at talks held under the aegis of the Labour Court last week.
It has also refused to rule out further stoppages and say they will be closely monitoring progress on the issues relating to the dispute.
John Douglas, a Mandate national official , accused senior management at the supermarket chain of treating the Labour Court in a high-handed manner in its failure to deliver on commitments made to the Court.
"For the past week, Tesco has been accusing both Mandate and SIPTU of not being willing to ballot our members on company proposals," Mr Douglas said.
". . .However, it is now clear that these proposals do not exist, despite the company’s commitment to the Labour Court to convey a formal offer directly to both unions last Thursday. . .
"The contempt shown for the Labour Court by Tesco in this instance is breathtaking. Tesco have shown a complete disregard for the industrial relations machinery of the state."
Meanwhile SIPTU, which represents 500 of Tesco’s 9,500 employees said its demands include improved basic pay, an elimination of the under-18 pay rate, increased shift pay for unsociable hours and improvement of pension and profit share.