MANDATE ANNOUNCE INNOVATIVE DEAL WITH SUPERQUINN FOR SURVIVAL AND RECOVERY OF COMPANY
Friday 27 March 2009Mandate trade union today (Friday, 27 March 2009) announced that they have agreed a deal with Superquinn concerning the long term survival and future prosperity of the company. The survival plan, “The Programme for Competitiveness and Change 2009/2010,” was negotiated with Mandate, Siptu and Bafwu trade unions in recent weeks and a ballot of their 3,000 members employed in the company has resulted in acceptance of the deal.
Staff members in Superquinn were balloted on a range of initiatives which will allow the business retain its competitiveness in a difficult trading and financial environment. The deal includes some pain for workers including a redundancy package which will see a total of 394 workers leave the company through a voluntary severance package. It will also include a pay pause for a provisional period of 12 months at which point the company and the unions will review Superquinn’s financial position at that time.
Mandate say that this is a highly innovative and progressive deal for both the employer and workers. While it sees workers take some pain in the short term, they will experience benefits when the company returns to profitability.
Mandate Assistant General Secretary, Gerry Light said, “A lot of credit for this deal should go to the workers in Superquinn who have recognised that the company is going through challenging times and consequently they have behaved in a very mature and responsible manner by balloting for acceptance of the Programme for Competitiveness and Change.
“This deal shows how trade unions, employers and workers can, through partnership and responsible actions, reach acceptable and meaningful outcomes for all interested parties. The unique arrangement reached between Superquinn and the group of unions should be seen as a potential blueprint by any company suffering similar difficulties in the current economic environment,” said Mr Light.
The Programme for Competitiveness and Change will see workers share in the future prosperity of the company. Some of the major aspects of the deal include:
· A voluntary redundancy package with 4 weeks wages for every year of employment with no cap;
· Superquinn workers will now own 1.5% of the retail business through the establishment of a formal a gain sharing scheme;
· Superquinn and the trade unions will set a budgeted net profit annually. When the company exceeds this profit, one third of the difference will be shared directly amongst Superquinn workers.
In an unusual move in the retail sector, Mandate and Superquinn have agreed to a banded hour’s contract which will ensure some level of certainty of earnings for workers.
Mr Light said, “Under previous arrangements, workers could be scheduled to work anything between 18 and 39 hours in a week. With the new banded hour contract, workers will either work in an 18 – 25 hour contract or a 25 – 39 hour contract. This gives some stability of earnings, which is a major achievement for staff in the Irish retail sector where workers hours are being cut across the board.”
“We have also established a major work life balance procedure which gives workers the option of annualised hours. What this essentially means is that workers can spread their pay across periods of time such as school holidays where they would previously have had to take unpaid leave.
Mr Light went on to say, “Contrary to some people’s beliefs, trade unions are not in the business of making companies unviable. It is not in our interest that workers should lose their jobs and that can be seen by our involvement in this unique deal. Where it is deemed necessary, we will work with troubled companies in order to maintain a competitive environment and we should be seen as part of the solution and not the problem.
Some of the objectives of The Programme for Competitiveness and Change are to:
· Build a sustainable and competitive business for the future;
· Ensure Colleagues share in the future success of the company;
· Work in partnership with the all three unions (Mandate, SIPTU, BFAWU) to create a vision and future for our Colleagues;
· Make Superquinn competitive and viable with a programme for growth;
· Above all, protect as many jobs as possible.
