Staff unrest brewing at Tesco

Industrial unrest is brewing at Tesco Ireland over management plans to put hundreds of long-serving staff on new contracts and its withholding of a 2% pay increase from them.

Last January, Tesco management announced plans to move all its pre-1996 staff onto a “modern contract”. It said it would compensate all affected staff for loss of earnings, “the terms of which will be finalised over the coming weeks”.

Talks with unions in the intervening period have not, according to Mandate trade union, been helped by an “ultimatum” from management it will move long-serving staff onto the new contracts on April 18. The company unions, Siptu and Mandate, have said they would ballot for industrial action if the new contracts were imposed.