Dunnes Stores staff to get 3 per cent pay increase

Retailer Dunnes Stores is to award its staff a 3 per cent pay increase, the trade union Mandate has said.

The union said it had lodged a claim for a 3 per cent rise in mid April. It said that on Tuesday morning at in-store meetings across the country staff were told by the company that the increase would be paid.

However the union said that the company must in addition also put in place secure, banded hour contracts for staff if the move is to be “meaningful”.

Mandate assistant general secretary Gerry Light said: "This concession of our claim for a 3 per cent pay increase is important, and it shows our campaign is making progress, but workers also need security of hours. What use is a pay increase if management can reduce your hours by 2 or 3 in a week, leaving you with less income?"

“Any pay increase must be implemented with banded hour contracts to ensure workers have decent and secure earnings from week to week. At the moment they don’t know if they’ll have the hours and the income to pay their electricity bill or feed their families next month. They can’t get a mortgage or a credit union loan because of their low-hour contacts.”

Mandate said it had won increases for its members in Dunnes Stores of about 9 per cent over the last 3 years.

About 5,000 staff in Dunnes Stores who are members of Mandate have been involved in a campaign in relation to working hours and earnings, job security, pay and the right to trade union representation.

The union’s members in more than 100 Dunnes Stores outlets staged a one-day stoppage on Holy Thursday earlier this month.

Staff at Dunnes Stores who are members of the Mandate trade union are to hold a major protest march in Dublin on June 6th.

Dunnes Stores employs almost 10,000 workers in 114 stores in the Republic of Ireland.