Update from the Penneys National Negotiation Team

Friday 8 March 2013

The Penneys National Negotiations Team has written to all Mandate members in the company to update them on developments with the current negotiations.

The group explained that following almost a year of protracted negotiations, the company has refused to yield to the workers’ demands for a fair wage increase of 3% and certainty of earnings for the workers.

“Despite the Penneys business achieving consistently huge profits during the past number of years, largely through the hard work of their loyal and diligent workforce, the disappointing response by management was to produce a list of counter demands,” said the National Negotiations Team.

“This included the introduction of a new lower pay scale and a reduction in Sunday premium payments for new starters along with the standardisation downwards of sick pay and unsocial hour’s premium entitlements for current employees.”

The group added that despite making the counter claim, at no stage were management committing to the 3% pay increase for all members and neither would they commit to the introduction of a satisfactory mechanism whereby established weekly hours could be protected for part time workers.

“This is a serious concern for many members, particularly as there is a possibility that hours can be reduced back to minimum levels as contained in individual contracts of employment.

They added, “Obviously there is no point in achieving a pay increase for all whilst at the same time the vast majority of our members in Penneys run the potential risk of having their weekly hours cut. In such a situation many could find themselves actually worse off.

“Significantly, management are not claiming an inability to afford the cost of our claim rather they boldly stated such cost would have to be covered through concession of their demands,” they said.

“Your representatives felt that this approach is fundamentally unfair and fails to recognise the massive contribution made by staff in driving the success of the Penneys/Primark business both here in Ireland and also across Europe.

“We feel that management should do the decent thing and accept that concession of our members’ claim is a cost that the business is more than capable of absorbing and would serve as a satisfactory level of recognition for the hard work our members have given the company over the years.”

The last of meeting between your National Negotiations Team took place at the Labour Relations Commission on Friday 1st March 2013.

The Negotiations Team concluded saying, “Because we cannot progress matters any further with management at this stage we have requested that our claim be forwarded to the Labour Court for consideration. We will of course keep you advised of developments as they arise and thank you for your continued commitment and support.”

To view the letter to members in full, please click here.