Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise with the Taoiseach the treatment by Tesco of its retail security officers. These are essential workers who helped to keep our supermarkets open during Covid-19. Their work became a lot more stressful and difficult during that period. They are in their third year without a pay rise. Last week, instead of Tesco contacting them to offer them the pay rise they deserve after all the hard work they have done, it contacted them and stated that their jobs are being outsourced. They have a few weeks to decide and then they will either get a severance package or be transferred over to a private company, namely, OCS, where pay, conditions and terms firms will inevitably be downgraded.

The workers are outraged. I met with a number of them last week. They said there was no discussion with them whatsoever and that Tesco was simply attempting to ram through this outsourcing agenda. Does the Taoiseach agree that this is horrifically bad behaviour by Tesco? Does he agree that the outsourcing threat should be withdrawn and instead these workers should be recognised with a pay increase?

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