Dominick Donnelly

11^th April 2009

Green Party member of Passage West Town Council and candidate for the Carrigaline electoral area of Cork County Council, Cllr. Dominick Donnelly has today slammed Tesco Ireland for issuing ultimatums to its employees in Douglas, Co. Cork, over the Easter weekend, when they are unable to consult either their union or their solicitors.  .

Cllr. Donnelly said: “I have been approached by a number of employees of the Tesco store in Douglas Shopping Centre, who are extremely concerned about how they are being treated by their employer.  A number of employees of Tesco in Douglas received letters on Good Friday, which were hand delivered to their homes, saying that they must sign up to new terms and conditions before Tuesday next, the 14^th April, or they will be made redundant.  To give your employees such an ultimatum over the Easter weekend, when they are unable either to consult their union or to seek legal advice, is bullying behaviour of the highest order, and cannot be tolerated.  The employees I spoke to today are literally petrified they are going to lose their jobs.”

“Tesco is about to move in to a new larger shop in Douglas as part of the redevelopment of Douglas Shopping Centre at the end of this month, and have been recruiting new staff for the new shop, and seem to be using this as an excuse to bully their existing employees into accepting new terms and conditions.  The employees’ unions have been in negotiations with Tesco, and have instructed their members not to accept the new terms on offer from Tesco.  Tesco basically want to tear up the existing employment contracts, and impose new inferior ones without going through a proper consultation process, and they are threatening redundancy for any employees who refuse to accept the new terms,” continued Cllr. Donnelly.

Cllr. Donnelly concluded:  “I have a copy of the letter received by the employees on Friday, and to receive such a letter over the Easter weekend is extremely distressing for long standing loyal employees, to say the least.  At the very least Tesco must enter into meaningful dialogue with its existing employees in Douglas, via their unions, and must apologise to its employees for treating them in this appalling way.  Tesco Ireland has been an extremely profitable company for many years, and such behaviour is completely out of order.”