Court rejects Tesco staff bid for €1,400 payout

The Labour Court has thrown out a claim by 80 Tesco workers that they should receive up to €1,400 each for relocating to a new store around 1km away from the old store.

In its claim lodged with the court, the Mandate trade union had sought the compensation for staff at the Ballinasloe store in Co Galway as “the transferring to the new location has caused disturbances and inconveniences and required increased flexibility and co-operation from employees”.

Mandate told the Labour Court that it was seeking compensation “as a result of the issues associated with the relocation and contends that the employer has previously paid compensation in situations such as this”.

Tesco moved from its previous store on the outskirts of the Co Galway town at Sarsfield Rd toa central location atDunlo in the town centre.

As a gesture of goodwill to staff surrounding the move, Tesco offered a once-off lump sum payment of €1,600 to the staff social fund.

However, this was rejected by Mandate who instead sought a payment of up to €1,400 per employee as a means of compensation for transferring to the new store.

In its argument put before the Labour Court, the British retail giant said “ there was no impact on employees who transferred to the new store” and rejected the union’s claim for compensation.

Tesco also maintained that compensation is not paid to employees who transfer to new stores and that the payment offered to the staff social fund was a once-off gesture of goodwill.

The Labour Court said that having considered both sides of the argument Tesco should increase its offer to €2,000 to be paid into the social fund.

No other payment by the Labour Court was recommended.

Mandate official, John Carthy said its claim did not relate to the distance between the two stores, but the inconvenience of the move around changing school runs, car-pooling and the need for staff to familiarise themselves with where products go in the new store.

The union official confirmed that a union committee is to consider the ruling on Monday and make a recommendation to staff as to whether to accept it or not.

Mr Carthy said he would be “very surprised” if Tesco would reject the recommendation as the ruling means the retailer will have to pay an additional €400 over what it had originally offered.

A spokesman for Tesco said it was waiting for the union to respond to the findings.