Labour Court calls on Dunnes Stores to “engage” with workers’ union

Sunday 24 February 2013

Mandate Trade Union has today slammed Dunnes Stores for refusing to honour its obligations under a deal the company committed to in 1996.

Mandate, which represents thousands of workers in Dunnes, say the company has refused to engage with both the union and the states mechanisms for resolving conflict, and this is a blatant and arrogant breach of their own agreement which they willingly and freely signed up to seventeen years ago.

Earlier this month, Mandate took a case for a 3% pay increase for its members in Dunnes to the Labour Court but the company once again failed to turn up.

“In this instance management has displayed once again a total disregard for basic decency and respect in dealing with its workforce and the Labour Court,” said Mandate Assistant General Secretary Gerry Light.

“Since 1996, Dunnes Stores has refused to attend the Labour Court on nearly every occasion when called upon to do so. The company has also steadfastly refused to allow union officials represent individual workers at a local level which is in clear contravention of their obligations under the specific terms of a collective agreement freely entered in to by them with the union back in 1996.

“This week we received written notification from the Labour Court who said it was ‘regrettable that the company failed to attend the hearing’, yet again, and urged Dunnes to ‘honour their collective agreements in both spirit and intent’, whilst specifically making reference to the 1996 national agreement. Furthermore, the Court concluded, ‘it now appears that the Company has failed to observe these procedures in dealing with the Union’s claim’.”

The Labour Court also stated that it “has no hesitation in recommending in favour of the Union’s claim for a 3% increase in pay,” a claim which Dunnes Stores conceded the day before the Labour Court hearing and effects 14,000 workers throughout the country.

Mr Light said, “It’s about time, after seventeen years, that Dunnes Stores took the concerns and rights of their workers seriously and allowed them to avail of their basic human right to representation by a trade union of their choice.

“It is clear that the owners of Dunnes have traditionally adopted a very proud and protective attitude towards the running of the family business,” he said. “However, their persistent dismissive attitude throughout the years towards their workers who wish to be represented by a trade union, which logically follows their constitutional right to be in one in the first place, seems to suggest that protections and entitlements afforded to these workers are at best placed secondary to the interests of those who benefit the most from this hugely profitable business.

“Hopefully Dunnes might learn from some of its competitors that treating people with respect is in fact a business asset – not a liability,” he said.

Mr Light also pointed to industry estimates that Dunnes Stores generated sales of around €3.8bn a year and was achieving significant profits, in large part, due to the hard work of their staff. He said the company could give proper recognition to this fact by engaging with their workers’ union.

For more information, please email news@mandate.ie