Almost 1,000 Tesco staff have voted in favor of industrial action over company’s proposals to amend their contracts to less advantageous conditions.
The staff, who were all hired pre-1996, currently earn a higher wage, as contractually agreed back then. The company is now trying to renege on those contracts and reduce their pay by almost €3 an hour.
Tesco has accepted an invitation for talks on the matter at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
According to the company, the pre-1996 contracts are ‘unworkable’, as stores didn’t open late nights or weekends at that time, therefore there are now too many staff rostered to work on the quietest days.
Tesco attempted to justify slashing the wages by saying “To improve customer service, we need to unlock the inflexibility in the pre-1996 contract which limits our ability to invest in having more colleagues working where our customers need and value them most.”