To all Mandate Members employed by Tesco Ireland Ltd: 

Dear Member,

Following the decision by Tesco to remove their threat to unilaterally reduce the terms and conditions of our members, Mandate as a consequence deferred the strike planned for Monday 16 May 2016. Both parties have also agreed to attend the Workplace Relations Commission [WRC] for discussions on Wednesday 18 May 2016. As always, Mandate and your Shop Stewards will approach these discussions in good faith in an effort to resolve the issues in dispute.

As you are aware, all our members’ terms and conditions are determined by collective bargaining between Tesco and Mandate and ultimately voted on in a democratic ballot of our members. In the Irish Republic, we pride ourselves on conducting our negotiations in a professional, open and democratic fashion, with no side attempting to pre-determine the outcome of said negotiations. The essence of Tesco’s approach in this dispute is to fundamentally move away from this approach in that from the outset Tesco pre-determined that only one outcome was possible. If this approach is not challenged it will have serious consequences for all Tesco workers and their terms and conditions of employment in the future. Just ask yourself, when will your current contract of employment become “old fashioned” and a new “modern contract” forced on you in the future?

This is the essence of this dispute and the vast majority of Mandate members understand this, they want to continue to have a voice at work, in the organisation of their work and the terms of their contracts of employment.

So, as always, we will keep you updated on developments at the WRC on 18 May 2016.

Yours fraternally

For Mandate Trade Union 

John Douglas

General Secretary

Full Tesco letter from the General Secretary here:

Tesco Ireland – update 160516