One of the biggest supermarkets in the country Tesco, has confirmed that they will go ahead with its plans to reduce pay and conditions for around 1,000 of its 14,000 employees worldwide on 18 April.
The news comes after the Mandate trade union, which represents 12,500 Tesco employees, recently revealed that the date for the controversial wage transfer was originally set May 2nd.
However, a Tesco spokesperson has since denied that the date was supposed to be May 2nd but instead the company is continuously working towards their date of April 18th. The company say they wish to streamline the employment terms of its pre-1996 employees and those recruited since then to a lower wage, in order to reduce its continuing debt crisis.
Although the rescheduled cuts will have no effect on Tesco’s staff as the Mandate Assistant General Secretary Gerry Light said that its members will resist any attempt by Tesco to implement unilateral changes
The latest dispute comes as Tesco wants to change the contracts of 1,000 workers who hold pre-1996 contracts of employment which see’s them being entitled to higher rates of pay than those who were recruited after 1996.
Tesco say the imposed changes must be implemented as the pre-1996 contracts are not sufficiently flexible to meet the needs for longer opening hours and changed trading patterns.
It is believed that there are around 89 pre-1996 workers employed at its Irish stores.