Dunnes workers to strike

end of the road

McLoughlin wrote: »

Two problems with this there is NO zero hour ontracts and there is a guaranteed a minimum number of working hours.

wrong

johnnyskeleton

McLoughlin wrote: »

Two problems with this there is NO zero hour ontracts and there is a guaranteed a minimum number of working hours.

end of the road wrote: »

wrong

Either provide references or an explanation as to your views (see efb's response above) or your post falls short of the standard required for this forum. I honestly don't know which of you two is actually right, but in terms of making bare assertions in this thread, you are both wrong in my view

end of the road

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

Either provide references or an explanation as to your views (see efb's response above) or your post falls short of the standard required for this forum. I honestly don't know which of you two is actually right, but in terms of making bare assertions in this thread, you are both wrong in my view

this is the best i could find. i couldn't find anything that stated there were no 0 hours contracts. http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/dunnes-row-over-15hour-contracts-30223301.html

Farmer Pudsey

Hard to know who is right or wrong. Know that lots of students have jobs in Dunnes. Dunnes however has issue's. I expect that it has kept market share at the cost of margin. Its has failed to deverlop premier own brand products unlike Tesco and Supervalue. Aldi and Lidl are taking the floor from under all lower brand products. This is especially true in the non foodcleaning and hygiene section. The other retailers never really developed as broad a range as they have accross all these products There simple plan of stocking a small high quality range especially by Aldi is putting pressure on all other retailers.

However Dunnes is not the worst offender of low hours contracts. And as well it starts workers on the minimu wage or above. The same cannot be said for for some clother retailers who used the training rate over Christmas and only gave 4.5 max hour shilfts and alot of the time less. Maybe Mandate shou;d have targeted these first.

Dunnes is under pressure since Ben Dunne left. I imagine that Margaret Hefferenan has a good understanding of the clothes trade but is not as sharp a food retailer as her brother Ben was. Dunnes has drifted over the years but has managed to retain market share. Tesco's share has fallen but I imagine it has kept margin and it use of automated technologhy is more than likly keeping costs down. Also it has managed to develop premium (in there customers eyes) own brands.

Dunnes is not in such a happy position its failure to use automated technology( maybe it is not suiting it customer base I do not think it is in all Tesco stores) has left it with a high cost base. However automated technologhy is not always the answer, it require a larger footprint and is suitable only to the small basket shopper. I imagine this is why Aldi and Lidl have not gone with it.

I feel sorry for Dunnes workers if what they are claiming is true. However if Dunnes margin has tightened over the last few years then a strike may not help the situtation

end of the road

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

some clother retailers who used the training rate over Christmas and only gave 4.5 max hour shilfts and alot of the time less. Maybe Mandate shou;d have targeted these first.

i would suspect mandate are dealing with these companies.

nice_guy80

end of the road wrote: »

i would suspect mandate are dealing with these companies.

Heatons?
Penneys?

johnnyskeleton

General talk about Union leaders moved here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057406447#

Godge

efb wrote: »

They are on zero hour contracts
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/contracts_of_employment/contracts_without_specific_working_hours_zero_hours_contracts.html
If Dunnes didn't bring them in for 15 hours that's the minimum by law they must be paid so mag gets her 15 hours worth

I think you are wrong. Look at the information again.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/contracts_of_employment/contracts_without_specific_working_hours_zero_hours_contracts.html

"The Act requires that an employee under a zero-hours contract who works less than 25% of their hours in any week should be compensated. The level of compensation depends on whether the employee got any work or none at all. If the employee got no work, then the compensation should be either for 25% of the possible available hours or for 15 hours, whichever is less."

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/dunnes-row-over-15hour-contracts-30223301.html

If you have a contract for 15 hours a week, the minimum agreed for Dunnes
according to the second link, then you must be paid a minimum of 3.75 hours per week, one quarter of your contract.

There is nothing around that clearly states what the dispute is about. I would guess that the issue Mandate have with Dunnes is that they are honouring the commitment to a minimum 15 hour contract but are only rostering and therefore paying for somewhere between 3.75 and 15. As a result, Dunnes are honouring the letter of the agreement but are in clear breach of the spirit and intent of the agreement. That type of situation allows both sides to claim they are right.

efb

Godge wrote: »

I think you are wrong. Look at the information again.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/contracts_of_employment/contracts_without_specific_working_hours_zero_hours_contracts.html

"The Act requires that an employee under a zero-hours contract who works less than 25% of their hours in any week should be compensated. The level of compensation depends on whether the employee got any work or none at all. If the employee got no work, then the compensation should be either for 25% of the possible available hours or for 15 hours, whichever is less."

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/dunnes-row-over-15hour-contracts-30223301.html

If you have a contract for 15 hours a week, the minimum agreed for Dunnes
according to the second link, then you must be paid a minimum of 3.75 hours per week, one quarter of your contract.

There is nothing around that clearly states what the dispute is about. I would guess that the issue Mandate have with Dunnes is that they are honouring the commitment to a minimum 15 hour contract but are only rostering and therefore paying for somewhere between 3.75 and 15. As a result, Dunnes are honouring the letter of the agreement but are in clear breach of the spirit and intent of the agreement. That type of situation allows both sides to claim they are right.

It's 1/4 of the availability not the minimum. So if they are required to be available mon sun during working hours 25% is 15 hours

They are not required to be available to work only 15 hours a week. They have to be available all the times on the contract.

rob316

Wow just finished reading the thread there is some amount of ****e been spouted in here.

Protecting a struggling business like Dunne's from a union, give me a break.
As someone who has worked for Dunne's, worked with Dunne's and had business dealings with Dunne's they are ruthless from top to bottom of management, they are as unethical a company as any.

Retail is up and down it sure is but this is Dunne's we are talking about not a sole trader with a couple of shops. They are well able to predict sales patterns.

All the staff want is banded contracts, Tesco do it why can't Dunne's? Low paid workers deserve to be protected. 15 hours is not sufficient employment and when its spread over 5 days its ****ing scandalous.

Shop in Dunne's tomorrow if you want but don't do it show solidarity for a company like Dunne's that treats its staff with utter contempt.

PopePalpatine

rob316 wrote: »

Shop in Dunne's tomorrow if you want but don't do it show solidarity for a company like Dunne's that treats its staff with utter contempt.

Welcome to free market libertarianism!

Godge

http://www.thejournal.ie/dunnes-stores-strike-4-2024976-Apr2015/


"DUNNES STORES IS offering 20% off everything in its online store, exclusively today, as thousands of its workers picket outside 107 of the chain’s stores."

Disgusting.

Eric Cartman

24 carling for 24 euro, savage value

efb

Eric Cartman wrote: »

24 carling for 24 euro, savage value

It's dreadful stiff

Tugboats

Eric Cartman wrote: »

24 carling for 24 euro, savage value

A grown "man" posting pic of his Dunnes receipt to strangers on a message board:o

rob316

^

Glad your working hard to provide yourself with piss Carling. :rolleyes:

Glad your proud of yourself, you may never experience working in Dunne's but I hope any of your future children don't have to suffer it. Ruled by a gang of bullies.

ricero

Several of my mates broke the picket today and went into work in Dunne's. Said that this dispute didn't effect them so opted out of the union last week.

Said it was the easiest days work they ever did in their lives.

Tugboats

rob316 wrote: »

^

Glad your working hard to provide yourself with piss Carling. :rolleyes:

Glad your proud of yourself, you may never experience working in Dunne's but I hope any of your future children don't have to suffer it. Ruled by a gang of bullies.

thats the least of his problems. He drove home from Dunnes with an erection thinking of posting the receipt online:o

rob316

Tugboats wrote: »

thats the least of his problems. He drove home from Dunnes with an erection thinking of posting the receipt online:o

Some people live very empty lives that they get enjoyment of walking past a bunch of low paid workers who but there jobs on the line today for fair contracts.

Dunne's is a piece of **** of a company and will continue to be. The workers are in for a savage fight with a company who are in my experience incredibly arrogant and difficult to deal with.

Steppenwolfe

ricero wrote: »

Several of my mates broke the picket today and went into work in Dunne's. Said that this dispute didn't effect them so opted out of the union last week.

Said it was the easiest days work they ever did in their lives.

It does affect them. They're just not bright enough to realise how.

ricero

Steppenwolfe wrote: »

It does affect them. They're just not bright enough to realise how.

How ?

They have part time contracts and have been working for Dunnes since id say 2008 when they were teenagers.

boundlessSea

I forgot about the strike today when I went to Dunnes I thought the two people outside were charity collectors but I saw two managers at the door staring at the people outside, then looked more closely and saw they were workers on strike, I suspect the intention of the managers was to intimidate the staff picketing, which seemed to be at least partly working as they were very quiet.

Sadly some people were shopping in the store, most which were office workers with much better working conditions and pay than Dunnes workers, we all need to support each other. The state should ensure that companies like Dunnes are unionized and that all workers are treated fairly and with dignity.

Steppenwolfe

ricero wrote: »

How ?

They have part time contracts and have been working for Dunnes since id say 2008 when they were teenagers.

I shouldn't have to explain this. Any conditions they have now or will have in the future is down to people on picket lines. And not just in Dunnes or this case specifically. As for leaving the union to pass the picket line, I can't find the words to express my contempt adequetly.

Brendan Bendar

boundlessSea wrote: »

I forgot about the strike today when I went to Dunnes I thought the two people outside were charity collectors but I saw two managers at the door staring at the people outside, then looked more closely and saw they were workers on strike, I suspect the intention of the managers was to intimidate the staff picketing, which seemed to be at least partly working as they were very quiet.

Sadly some people were shopping in the store, most which were office workers with much better working conditions and pay than Dunnes workers, we all need to support each other. The state should ensure that companies like Dunnes are unionized and that all workers are treated fairly and with dignity.

Have great sympathy with the Dunnes workers, but that post is off the wall.

With all due respect, reminiscent of the USSR..
Sorry lad this is 2015.

end of the road

Brendan Bendar wrote: »

Have great sympathy with the Dunnes workers, but that post is off the wall.

With all due respect, reminiscent of the USSR..
Sorry lad this is 2015.

exactly. so we now more then ever need to unite to stop unscrupulous employers from taking us backwards, to the bad old days. something employers are trying to do

PopePalpatine

rob316 wrote: »

^

Glad your working hard to provide yourself with piss Carling. :rolleyes:

Glad your proud of yourself, you may never experience working in Dunne's but I hope any of your future children don't have to suffer it. Ruled by a gang of bullies.

That sums up a lot of libertarian Scrooges.

Guffy

Store i had worked in laid on a feed for the staff. Rashers, sambos, sausages, whole chickens, sweets, drinks, etc.

Picket line started shouting at the lads who dropped out of union...

Picket line, 'hope it was worth it for a few rashers, x'

X, ' not really, but the sausages and sandwiches went down a treat alright'.


With all the talk it looked very poorly organised. Shop steward in store spent months intimidating people to join union and pulled out himself the week before.

Personally i agree with the union. The flexi contract is horrible. 30 hours one week 17 the next. You just can't plan anything. Same with holidays. I was going to states one new year. Put in the holiday request in June but hr wouldn't give me an answer until late November no matter how many times i asked. In the end i had to tell her I'm not available do what you want. I'll send in a cert if you make me. Cost me bout a hundred quid on flights.

Full Marx

You'd want to be some saddo to purposely go break a picket to buy some crap beer just to get to post the receipt online.

I was down at the picket for a few hours yesterday before and after work - the treatment from managers was horrendous, but even worse IMO were the scabs who broke the picket. All in all though the strike seems to have been widely respected, the two stores I were at were deserted except for a handful of foreign people who I do t think understood what was going on (no English)

So odd how people who align to the right, whether because they genuinely believe in what they say or are simply trolling, are so fond of minimum-hour contracts.

However, minimum-hour contracts are likely to be harmful to the economy and may be a serious drain on the taxpayer in the following ways.

1. Employment inertia.
Employment inertia refers to the tendency to 'settle' in a job, or to the time and energy constraints experienced by workers when thinking about applying for a new job. Erratic work demands mean that workers are in a weaker position to set-aside time to seek regular, full-time work than the 'full-time unemployed'. Yet, on the days when workers are unemployed, they impose a charge on the Department of Social Protection.

2. Non-investment in training
Businesses that avail of these 'pop-up workers' have no incentive to invest in the training and skills base of those workers. One of the major benefits of working is the training and skills that are acquired, and are necessary to progress. A lack of training, on the other hand, impedes progression and traps workers as low-paid unskilled, unreliable work. These workers are likely to be less employable than other workers, and to be more dependant on the taxpayer. Ironically, it is usually the pop-up workers who most-need workplace training.

3. Weak reinvestment
Ordinarily, enterprises ensure profitability by focussing on business efficiency and reinvestment. The greater the profits to be reinvested, the more the enterprise will feel bound to its investment, and therefore to the economy. However, managers that can readily discard workers have less incentive to invest and meet efficiency 'the hard way', since profitability can just be manipulated by discarding workers over the short term. Ultimately, this is bad for the business, for corporate investment, and economic stability.

There are various other, obvious reasons why workers should be concerned about the spillover effects of minimum-hour contracts. However, the above are reasons why other businesses and other economic stakeholders should also be concerned about the use of these forms of contracts.

Simon2015

Before the strike I had never realized that most of dunnes workers are on temporary contracts.