Polish agency workers sacked from a Tesco distribution centre are to stage a protest outside the company's store on Baggot Street, Dublin at 6pm this evening.
The two men claim they were sacked from Tesco's main distribution centre in Tallaght after complaining about management demands that productivity be improved in the packing section.
"Usually we pick 750 boxes an hour but after three months of the normal rate our manager wants more, more, more. It's not possible picking 900. You must look after your back and health and safety processes," said one of the workers.
SIPTU Dublin Food Branch Official Brendan Carr
Along with the reinstatement of their jobs, the sacked workers and their supporters are demanding that productivity levels be reduced to a manageable level and that agency workers who work for more than three months receive a contract from Tesco.
The incident has received wide media coverage in Poland and solidarity protests are due to take place this evening in London, Glasgow, Liverpool and Oxford.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, a Tesco spokeswoman admitted that the company had recently conducted a review of productivity levels but said that the new levels were well within those outlined by the International Labour Organisation.
A spokesman for Grafton Recruitment, who employed one of the men, today said the two men in question were "subject to the same scheme of productivity improvement as all other workers at the centre - both agency and contract".
He denied that the worker employed by the agency had been sacked and said that, due to the fact that he was unhappy at Tesco, he had been offered alternative employment at "the same rate of pay, in the same area and with the same conditions".
The worker in question refused this offer and is calling for his position at the distribution centre to be reinstated.
SIPTU has taken Tesco to the Labour Relations Commission claiming that the number of agency workers employed at the distribution centre is excessive in a case to be heard on August 12 th.
According to SIPTU Dublin Food Branch Official Brendan Carr, 25 per cent - 30 per cent of the employees at the distribution plant are agency workers and the union considers this "a cheap form of labour".
"There is a substantial difference between the rates paid to agency and contract workers with agency workers earning around €357 a week and contract workers on around €540," he said.
SIPTU are not involved in this evening's protests.
A Tesco spokeswoman said today that the issue of the sacked Polish workers was one for the agencies.