Dunnes Stores workers call for Covid-19 payment to be made permanent

Some 2,500 Dunnes Stores workers have signed a petition calling on the company to make their temporary Covid-19 allowance and staff discount permanent.

The petition was delivered to the Dunnes Stores head office in Dublin on Monday afternoon.

It follows a successful campaign by the workers last year for temporary measures to be put in place as recognition of their work and the risks to their health and safety they took working during the global pandemic. Now the workers want the measures to be made permanent.

The petition said: “We, the undersigned staff working in Dunnes Stores, call on you to make the 10 per cent pay rise and 20 per cent discount card permanent. We worked hard keeping Dunnes Stores running and serving our communities through Covid-19. We feel this is something we have earned.”

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An employee in one of the company's stores in Dundalk said: "We haven't had a pay increase since 2019 but we've had a temporary 10 per cent allowance added to our pay last year. That isn't factored into our pensions, or if we go on holidays we lose out."

“We think, after the last 18 months of working very hard through a deadly pandemic, that the least Dunnes can do is recognise our efforts by making these changes permanent,” she added.

An employee at the company's Ongar store in Dublin 15, said grocery sales had been "exceptionally busy" throughout the Covid-19 crisis.

“We’ve been dealing with more customers and processing more goods. We know that Dunnes can afford this and we feel we deserve it after all we’ve been through,” she said.

Dunnes Stores has been contacted for comment.