Mandate asks Tesco Ireland for clarification on UK job losses
Tesco Ireland spokesperson says changes will affect UK business and that "whenever we make changes in our business, colleagues are always the first to know”
Print29 January 2019
Following Tesco’s announcement in the UK that up to 9,000 jobs could be impacted in a move “to further simplify [the] business”, Mandate trade union has requested a meeting with the supermarket to clarify the effect upon Irish workers.
While Mandate said it had not yet received a response to its letter to Tesco Ireland, a spokesperson for the retailer said the changes “relate to Tesco UK”.
“Whenever we make changes in our business, colleagues are always the first to know,” she added.
The Irish Times reported Mandate’s assistant secretary general Gerry Light asked Tesco for “the same commitment as UK members,” referring to Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis’ pledge to consult with workers as the job cuts proceeded.
According to Gerry Light, “any failure to respond will only heighten tensions and anxieties” among the approximately 9,000 Tesco employees in Ireland who are Mandate members.
Job cuts in UK
In announcing the changes to the UK business, Tesco said it estimated “that up to 9,000 Tesco colleague roles could be impacted, however, our expectation is that up to half of these colleagues could be redeployed to other customer-facing roles.
“We are working with our third party providers to understand the impact on their staff in our colleague hot food service,” Tesco added.
The retailer also decried media speculation during the weekend as “premature” and said it had “accelerated communications” to staff “to reduce the significant uncertainty created by incorrect information”.
“We will be doing all we can to help colleagues affected by these changes, including offering redeployment opportunities wherever possible,” the statement continued.
“Simplification” process
The areas where changes would take place were specified as “simplification” to in-store counters, stock control, merchandising, head office and colleague rooms.
Within colleague rooms, Tesco said only one third of stores currently provide a hot food service. Due to a “reduced demand” for this, they will be replaced with self-catering kitchen areas – affecting those working in the rooms who are employed by third party caterers.
In a justification of these changes, Jason Tarry, CEO, UK & ROI said: “In our four years of turnaround we’ve made good progress, but the market is challenging and we need to continually adapt to remain competitive and respond to how customers want to shop.
“We’re making changes to our UK stores and head office to simplify what we do and how we do it, so we’re better able to meet the needs of our customers,” he added. “This will impact some of our colleagues and our commitment is to minimise this as much as possible and support our colleagues throughout.”
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