Workers at Navan Tesco set to strike

Mandate Trade Union issued strike notice to Tesco Ireland today with nine stores, including Navan, to be affected by the strike action scheduled for next Tuesday, 14th February.
Members of the union balloted in favour of strike action by a margin of 78 percent. The union which represents more than 10,000 workers at the company, say the strike will initially involve nine stores, but could escalate with a further 15 stores expected to ballot for industrial action in the coming days. The unions says the action will continue for an indefinite duration.
Mandate claims Tesco Ireland is attempting to force changes to contracts of employment without agreement for approximately 250 workers employed before 1996 and that the new contracts would result in some workers experiencing reduced incomes of up to 15 percent along with increased ‘flexibility’.
It says any attempts to change any workers’ conditions of employment without agreement will be resisted vigorously by their members.
Mandate is calling on the company to prevent the upcoming strike by guaranteeing that no changes to existing contracts of employment will be made without agreement.

Meanwhile, Tesco Ireland has described Mandate's move as 'extremely disappointing' and has reassured their customers that all Tesco stores will be open for business as usual next Tuesday. 'It is extremely disappointing that Mandate has now voted for strike action in nine stores when we have not made any changes to the pre-1996 terms and conditions which affect 250 people out of 14,500 working in Tesco.

'We are now urging Mandate to rethink its strategy and accept the Labour Court’s Recommendation on changes to pre-1996 terms and conditions.'
'The Labour Court has issued a very clear recommendation which sets out the path for resolution. Tesco has accepted the Labour Court Recommendation in its totality even though it was beyond what we believed was affordable. Mandate has rejected it,' the spokesperson said.
'Our business must be able to meet the needs of our customers but terms and conditions nearly quarter of a century old do not take account of the growth of late night, weekend and online shopping and create unfairness as hours are not evenly spread out.'
'We urge Mandate to accept the Labour Court’s Recommendation and call off this unnecessary strike action.