Staff stage protest outside Tesco Ardkeen following pay dispute
According to Mandate, the protests will not stop until Tesco agree to "respect their workers."
Today, December 12, Tesco workers from the Ardkeen store, located in Waterford City, staged a public protest following reports that the brand has refused to negotiate pay with the staff.
While the workers are set to receive a 3% increase on their wages, they were not given the chance to have a say in this, and believe they were denied their rights to be represented by their trade union.
According to Mandate, the protests will not stop until Tesco agree to "respect their workers."
Mandate, which has negotiated on behalf of Tesco workers since 1997, stated that in recent years the management have refused to bargain as a collective, but rather imposed pay awards on workers instead.
They believe these pay awards are 'wholly inadequate.'
General Secretary of Mandate, Lorraine O'Brien, said, "Tesco is a highly profitable company, and that's because of their staff,"
"Tesco sales are up for 9.4 percent in Ireland, their after tax profits rose by 10 percent and they paid a dividend of €100m to the parent company, but wages only went up by 4% in 2024. The company announced a 3% increase for 2025, which is only half the pay claim of 6 percent that we lodged a number of months ago," she added.
Further protests are due to be announced in the upcoming days.