STAFF AT retailer Marks Spencer are to receive pay increases of up to 6.7 per cent under a new deal reached between the company and the trade union Mandate.
Mandate said yesterday that the terms set out in the deal were above and beyond those contained in the national wage agreement agreed between social partners last autumn.
The union said the deal would see the first phase of the national agreement – 3.5 per cent – paid to all staff from January 1st last.
It said staff at Marks Spencer would not have to undergo the three-month pay freeze set out for private-sector workers in the national agreement.
Marks Spencer did not comment on the deal yesterday.
The union said that, under the agreement, the starter rate for new employees would rise to €10 an hour from €9.50 and hour – an increase of 5 per cent.
It said that, for staff with one year’s experience, the rate would rise from €10.44 to €11.20 an hour – an increase of 6.78 per cent.
Mandate also said yesterday that a rate of €12.50 per hour would apply to staff with three years’ service.
The union added that, as a goodwill gesture, Marks Spencer had announced that existing staff being paid through the old system of productivity-based pay would each receive between €500 and €1,000 as a once-off payment.
