Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD, Seán Crowe, has accused Tesco’s management of behaving irresponsibly in trying to strong arm changes to work practices and wages. Tesco has two stores in Dublin South West.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“Tesco’s management have ignored a Labour Court recommendation for 1,000 of their 14,500 workers in Ireland, and now they are trying to introduce plans for unilateral pay cuts of up to 15%, to change the working conditions of employment, the work patterns, and the bonus payments of long term staff. This is sharp practice and is unacceptable to their workers.

“Tesco’s management are ignoring the rights of their workers. They are seeking to increase their profit margin by strong arm tactics and by forcing their staff to accept significantly reduced take home pay.

“Claims by Tesco that this is about streamlining its systems deliberately ignores the reality that for many workers their conditions of employment will be made acutely worse, and their pay packets will contain significantly less.

“Tesco needs to rethink its current workplace strategy, negotiate properly with their workers’ union, and step back from the brink in what could be a damaging industrial strike.

“The outgoing  Fine Gael/Labour government failed to legislate to protect workers, especially low paid workers, and has cleared the way for the extension of zero hour contracts and the exploitation of low paid workers. This lack of legislation has emboldened many companies and is contributing to a race to the bottom by employers who are chasing ever increasing profits.

“The warped idea that you penalise staff who have worked for you for decades is a new low and needs to be stopped before it takes traction with other multiples in the retail sector.

“Tesco workers and their customers do have a say and collectively they will give a loud answer to this proposed practice.”

ENDS