Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Joan Collins, Clare Daly, Carol Nolan, Aengus Ó Snodaigh and Mick Barry for raising this matter and welcome the opportunity to respond.

I have no direct role in the resolution of this dispute or similar disputes. I understand the dispute at Tesco relates to proposed changes to pre-1996 employee contracts for approximately 250 of the 14,500 staff employed at Tesco. In a circumstance such as this, I would always advise and encourage parties to use the offices of the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and Labour Court, as the parties have done on this occasion.

An extensive process of engagement and negotiation culminated in August 2016 in the Workplace Relations Commission making proposals for resolution of the issues at the request of the parties. These proposals were accepted by Tesco but rejected by the trade union side. The matter was subsequently referred to the Labour Court. In November 2016, the Labour Court recommended that the parties should, over a period of eight weeks, engage in a locally based process in an attempt to allow settlement at local store level. The court recommended that the process should be guided generally by the content of the WRC proposals. If this did not succeed, the Labour Court recommended that the WRC proposals should then be accepted as the means of national resolution of the issues. Tesco accepted the Labour Court recommendation, while Mandate rejected it and did not engage in the local process. After balloting its members, Mandate served strike notice and industrial action commenced on Tuesday last at eight stores. Industrial action will commence at eight more stores tomorrow and staff at a further 23 stores will be balloted from Monday next. This is disappointing given the efforts of the Workplace Relations Commission and Labour Court.

I welcome the announcement at lunchtime today that both parties have agreed to talks. I hope these talks will result in a resolution acceptable to all sides.

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