Tesco Mullingar will NOT strike tomorrow

Olga Aughey

It will be business as usual in Tesco Mullingar tomorrow.

The staff in both Mullingar and Athlone stores are members of the SIPTU trade union who will not be mounting strike action.

SIPTU originally served notice to mount strike action only if Tesco unilaterally implement changes to working terms and conditions, changes which have yet to take place.

That’s according to Derek Casserly of SIPTU who said the notice, served on April 11, still stands.

“Our ballot paper was quite clear. In the event that Tesco unilaterally implement changes to working terms and conditions without agreement, only then would we mount strike action,” Mr Casserly told the Westmeath Independent.

“So far that hasn’t happened. They threatened to implement changes on April 18, and then again on May 16, but both times they (management) backed down.

“They have yet to implement any changes and until they do so, legally the status quo remains.”

In all there are roughly 100 SIPTU members in the Athlone store, and over 150 members in Mullingar.
Strike
Meanwhile, Mandate Trade Union announced that a strike of indefinite duration will take place in more than 70 Tesco Ireland stores from Thursday morning at 7am (26th May) following a breakdown in talks in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on Tuesday.

Mandate say the strike is avoidable provided the company either withdraws their threats to force changes to pay and conditions of employment for their workers without agreement or attends the Labour Court for an impartial third party hearing.

Their action is over the threat of 15-35% pay cuts; the slashing of overtime; cuts to Sunday and unsociable hour’s premiums from double pay to time and a half; a reduction in the annual bonus and changes to rosters.
Tesco
In a statement released by Tesco Ireland this morning, it said it was extremely disappointed at Mandate’s action, and said new proposals tabled yesterday, including a 2% pay increase; protected 5% share bonus award; a €3,000 lump sum payment and a 2% backdated payment to April 2015 in settlement of the 2015 pay claim, were not given the chance to be voted on by Mandate trade union members.

“Our stores and online service will open for business as normal on Thursday 26 May. As no changes in relation to the c300 colleagues on the pre-1996/97 contract have been made, we consider such action inconsistent with the ballot which only mandated action in the event we implement change,” the statement from Tesco read.

“We deferred the proposed implementation date for this contract change to facilitate constructive discussions in the WRC, ... Further only 30% of colleagues in affected stores eligible to vote actually voted in support of this action,” it continued.

“Extensive discussions at the WRC over several weeks, including 18 hours yesterday, have failed to deliver progress on agreeing compensation for making this change to our pre-1996/97 contract that affect c300 out of our 14,500 workforce.

“In the spirit of compromise, Tesco yesterday tabled new proposals at the WRC that address the feedback received from our colleagues in relation to the pre-1996/97 contract changes. We are disappointed that Mandate has rejected these proposals without giving their members the opportunity to vote... We really hope that colleagues will see this as a genuine offer that addresses the concerns raised.”