Workers at a branch of Tesco in Douglas, Co Cork have gone on strike today over the company's plans not to honour established terms and conditions for staff moving to a new store in the area.
Mandate, the union representing the 80 workers at the Douglas branch of the multinational retailer, claims the company is ignoring a long standing agreement with the union guaranteeing workers transferring to new premises the right to hold onto their current terms and conditions.
The Tesco store in Douglas is due to move to new premises on May 1st. The union says the company has said openly it is not willing to accept all staff members from the old store on their current contracts.
Mandate claimed today that Tesco had threatened staff with a lockout until June at meetings held ahead of today's strike.
"We had some very young staff members coming to us in tears because of what was said to them at the company meetings yesterday," said the union's assistant general secretary Linda Tanham.
"Tesco's behaviour shows disregard for their staff members and their democratic right to protest at the erosion of their terms and conditions. Workers said they felt isolated and put under enormous stress and duress," she added.
Mandate claimed that management told workers that if they went on strike today, the store would remain closed until June and they wouldn't receive any pay until then.
The union says Tesco is using the using the transfer of workers to a new store “opportunistically” as a means to erode terms and conditions in order to maintain unrealistic profit levels.
The union is concerned that if the company is allowed to proceed with these cuts in terms and conditions, it could lead to a process whereby all negotiated contracts and agreements with the union would be ignored. This, they argue, could have serious implications for the 12,000 workers in Tesco in the Republic of Ireland.
"This is an official strike and was voted for democratically by our members. However, yesterday Tesco told staff that due to the stress levels they have been under, it would be perfectly acceptable to ring in sick today and they would be fully paid. This was clearly an attempt to break the picket line and staff members have recognised this fact and are angry at the company for it," added Ms Tanham.
Tesco has previously said it was disappointed that seven staff workers at the Douglas branch continued to have issues with the terms offered to them but added it remained available for further discussions with local union representatives or through an independent third party.