The Mandate trade union will meet solicitors on Monday to seek advice for union members it alleges have been "targeted" by Dunnes Stores management for participating in a one-day strike earlier this month.
The union says it has received reports “from all over the country” of management calling in workers who were on pickets on Holy Thursday and telling them that their hours had been reduced or that they were being moved from long- held positions.
Dismissals of strikers and changes to strikers’ shift patterns have also been alleged.
Mandate general secretary John Douglas last night wrote to Margaret Heffernan, the company's director, saying the "co-ordinated victimisation of union members must be reversed" and workers allegedly dismissed since the strike must be reinstated.
Among these is Tony Malone, who had worked in Dunnes Stores for 4½ years.
He told The Irish Times in a video interview that he had participated in the strike as a majority of his Mandate colleagues had voted for the action.
Dismissal
“Friday April the 3rd, then, I went into work as normal, seven o’clock in the morning . . . I got a phone call to come upstairs and my store manager was there and the HR manager was there. And they sat me down and they says: ‘Right, we’re going to have to let you go due to the downturn in business.’
“A few minutes later then I went downstairs to ask could I have my request in paper as to why I was let go and I was blatantly told, ‘No, no chance’.
“I never had a problem working with Dunnes. I had a review before that day which was excellent. My manager said it was excellent.”
He said he had never been told to improve his work and had got on well with his manager.
“There was never any warning of [the dismissal]. I’m so shocked. I was so mad at the time. I still am mad. I’m mad at the way the whole thing panned out.”
Mandate divisional organiser Willie Hamilton said the union was "investigating the facts around the unfair dismissal of Tony that happened the day after the industrial dispute. We will be taking legal advice in respect of that."
A young female worker who participated in the strike has also allegedly been dismissed from a branch in Dublin.
A spokesman for the union said it was “exploring all legal avenues” as to how to respond to the alleged mistreatment of strikers by Dunnes management.
Dunnes Stores did not comment on the allegations.
