Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the very serious and escalating situation facing workers in Tesco. In recent weeks, Tesco has decided to take the extraordinary action of bypassing its workers' union, Mandate, and unilaterally imposing the terms of a contract. These terms, if accepted, would mean a pay cut of more than 15%, in addition to an attack on terms and conditions for the company's longest-serving workers. This is only the beginning. Tesco's union-busting activities are part of a broader plan known as Project Black, which was drawn up by a specialist international legal team called Eversheds. It aims to get rid of 1,200 of the most secure and well-paid jobs in the company, critically undermining the union in the process. If this plan succeeds, it will be a big step towards bringing Tesco into line with the low-hour, low-wage and insecure employment that is rampant across the retail sector. The company intends to enforce these changes by bullying its workers, trying to turn them against one another and disciplining those who speak out. This is both deeply worrying and unnecessary.

Tesco is no pauper. Research estimates suggest the company makes between €200 million and €250 million in profit per year in Ireland. Only a few years ago, Tesco was calling Ireland "Treasure Island" in its internal documents, a clear indication of the big money it made here.

In recent days in Britain, Tesco agreed to shell out £3.7 billion to buy Booker, the food wholesale company, and it plans to pay dividends to shareholders at the same time that it imposes cuts on workers. Tesco is no pauper. It is a serious player. It is the largest private sector employer in Ireland. What happens to its 11,000 retail workers in the coming days and weeks should be of high priority to every Deputy. It will also tell a story about the reality of work in modern Ireland.

Figures show that Ireland is second in the OECD in terms of low pay at 25% of the workforce. The Tánaiste referred to yesterday's Survey of Income and Living Conditions, SILC, report but it also mentioned that 105,000 people were working poor. Everyday, hundreds of thousands of people go to work in low-pay jobs on insecure terms and unpredictable hours, struggling to get by from day to day. In many cases, the public subsidises this. For example, 10% of Tesco's workforce is in receipt of family income supplement.

Will the Tánaiste condemn Tesco's latest actions? Will she defend the rights of workers to be represented in their workplaces and not to be bypassed by super-rich multinational corporations that try to impose terms unilaterally? Will she take action about the low-pay crisis, which already impacts on one quarter of our workers according to the OECD and threatens to escalate further under her Government?

See this speech in context