14th July 2023
RE: PAY INCREASE
Dear Member
We have been made aware by your Employer’s Representative that some of you may have received a pay increase as a result of showing flexibility and taking on extra tasks. We are actively corresponding with your Employer’s Representative on this matter. We are seeking to understand when this pay increase was applied. We are also trying to understand why there has been a deviation from the norm as pay increases are normally negotiated on a collective basis. While we do welcome pay increases, we do note that not all of you seem to have received a pay increase and we deem this to be unfair and unequitable. The following is an excerpt from your Employer’s Representative correspondence to this office: “It remains the case that Edmund is open to looking at the core hourly rate payable to a member if there is flexibility shown that leads to savings being obtained in other ways and a more efficient roster being prepared. Examples of this may include;
- More evening and weekend hours. This would reduce the need for part time cover, ensure a consistent offering in store and avoid excessive work on eg Monday mornings when the store had not been packed properly by experienced colleagues for days.
- Automation of certain processes including scanning and office tasks and the redistribution of experienced colleague hours into other store areas.
- Flexibility during current hours to proactively (or via management instruction) move around to other work stations eg if tills are quiet for the first hour, one colleague could support the store in another dept.”
Please liaise with your Shop Steward, Ms. Geraldine Greaney. We have asked Geraldine in turn to relay your queries to this office. Please be advised it is vitally important that you engage on this matter so that we can attain a favourable outcome for our entire membership. The best possible steps after this would be to hold a general meeting of our membership.
Thanking you in advance for your assistance with this matter.
Yours sincerely
For Mandate Trade Union
Pearse McCarthy
Divisional Organiser