Tesco denies exploiting Polish workers at distribution centre

SUPERMARKET giant Tesco has rejected claims the supermarket chain is exploiting Polish workers at its main distribution centre in Dublin.

Complaints by Polish workers about pay and conditions at Tesco in Ireland has received widespread media coverage in Poland in the past week.

Two Polish workers claimed they were recently sacked from Tesco’s main distribution centre at Greenhills Road, Tallaght, after they protested about demands from management to increase productivity in its packing section. “Usually we pick 750 boxes per hour but after three months of the normal rate, our manager wants more, more, more,” said one of the former Tesco workers.

“In Tesco people were treated very bad. Used very much not as people but as a product. The target of work was increased all the time and there was no more pay for it, even when people work harder than previous.”

Workers employed by a recruitment agency at the centre are also angered that they are on different pay rates to full-time Tesco employees, while being denied the offer of contracts.

However, the company disputes claims it treated its Polish workforce unfairly.

A Tesco spokeswoman admitted the company had recently conducted a review of productivity levels which resulted in alterations to previous levels.

“The new levels are well within those specified by the International Labour Organisation,” said the spokeswoman.

She said the two men who criticised the working conditions at Tesco were contract workers employed by Grafton Recruitment.

“They were never employees of Tesco,” she said.

The spokeswoman said the two men had been transferred by Grafton to a similar position in another company with the same pay and conditions as before.

However, she admitted the two men had left Tesco as a result of discussions between Tesco and the recruitment agency. A small group of Polish workers staged at protest outside the Tallaght facility last Thursday in protest at the removal of their two colleagues.

Two demonstrations were also held outside Tesco outlets in Poland where the supermarket has a rapidly expanding business.

Polish media have carried reports that multinational and Irish employers are taking advantage of the large number of migrant workers who have moved to the Republic since the expansion of the EU last year.

It is estimated around 30% of the 200 people working at the Tesco distribution centre are hired on contract through recruitment agencies.

SIPTU official Brendan Carr said the union was in dispute with Tesco over differences in pay and conditions at the centre between full-time Tesco employees and contract staff. It is understood the dispute will be referred to the Labour Relations Commission.