Several workers from the Tesco Ardkeen store in Waterford City staged a public protest today. Staff say the supermarket giant is not negotiating with them regarding pay.
It's understood staff will receive a 3% increase in their wages, however, unions representing the workers say staff have no say in this.
Amanda Kane, Divisional Organiser from Mandate Trade Union spoke to us outside the store this afternoon.
"They've recently imposed a 3% pay increase, however, they are denying our members the right to vote on that increase, which is fundamental.
"This is the first time that Tesco has not allowed our members to vote on a pay increase. Our members are now denied the right to decide whether or not that 3% is satisfactory or not. We have collective agreements with Tesco and since roughly around 2017 they have refused to allow the unions into the stores when it comes to disciplinaries for example."
Waterford has one of the largest footprints in the country when it comes to Tesco, with five stores across the city and county, one store in Ferrybank.
The supermarket giant also employs over 200 people at its call center in Butlerstown, Waterford City who provide customer care to Tesco Clubcard and Tesco Mobile customers.
It's understood, however, that the union Mandate only represents employees from Tesco stores.
Tesco Business Services, IDA, Butlerstown, Waterford.
Amanda Kane continued."This is not a strike, it's a public protest and it's a way of bringing this to the the public's attention. This is a decision that Tescos has made to deny our members the right to have their union represent them at negotiations. This is about collective bargaining."
WLR reached out for comment to Tesco with a response stating:
"Tesco is the only food retailer in Ireland to recognise trade unions across all of our stores.
"Over the past 12 months, we engaged in agreed independently mediated discussions with colleague representatives and their trade unions (initiated by Tesco) to try to agree on a new model of engagement that would provide for timely and definitive outcomes where any proposed changes, including pay, would benefit from negotiations. Unfortunately, we were unable to reach a shared view through that mediation process, but we continue to remain open to re-engaging with the trade unions in the future should they have constructive proposals on how such a model can be achieved (for the benefit of colleagues).
"In the meantime, we had committed to colleagues to provide certainty on pay in advance of our next review date due in January 2025 and recently announced a € 14 million investment in our pay award for hourly paid colleagues for 2025 including a significant enhancement of paid maternity, adoptive and paternity leave for all colleagues in our business."
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