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

The situation in Tesco should be alarming to anyone concerned with decent work in this country, particularly Government. Over recent months, 900 full-time permanent jobs in a hugely profitable company have been lost. Not one full-time job has replaced them. Instead Tesco is now going after the remaining 250 workers on these decent contracts and trying to force them out the door. The company states that it has offered workers voluntary redundancy, but what kind of choice is it when they are told their terms and conditions will be torn up if they stay on. In reality, this is part of a long-term plan in Tesco to break their union.

Earlier this month in the Dáil, I spoke about Project Black. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation heard me speak about it. It is a plan drawn up by a union-busting legal firm, Eversheds, which was also employed by Ryanair when it set up its company. We now know that there is also Project Purple. The company initially stated that there was no such thing as Project Black. Then it admitted there was but, in admitting it, it stated there also was Project Purple. The staff are wondering what the hell is Project Purple, which appears to be coming down the line.

The plan is to convert an entire workforce of 11,000 jobs to part-time, low paid and precarious work. This matches what we are seeing across the economy, which is the growth of low pay Ireland. Jobs in companies such as Tesco that once offered workers enough security to plan their lives enough pay to support a family are being replaced with ones that will never be able to meet the cost of living. The most recent OECD statistics show that Ireland is second in the developed world for low paid jobs - it is one in four jobs.

Is the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation prepared to stand over this kind of economy? If not, why is she not intervening and telling Tesco not to bully its workers in the way it has in recent weeks? Will she state today that a company that made €250 million in profit here last year should not unilaterally change the terms and conditions of the workers who made that possible?

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