Labour Court limits Tesco worker’s checkout duties to truly exceptional cases

The Labour Court affirmed a Rights Commissioner’s recommendation in a dispute between Tesco Ireland and Mandate over a worker’s assigned duties, while clarifying that checkout work should be truly exceptional and neither frequent nor regular. The Court signed its decision on 8 December 2010. The worker, who had been employed before 1996, argued that a collective agreement protected her from changes to her duties and that Price Integrity work would increase her responsibilities. Tesco said she was trained for all store operations and should follow reasonable instructions. The Court said it was not deciding the wider questions about how the collective agreements applied across the company. The Court considered Price Integrity work to be essentially the same job carried out differently and said it was reasonable to expect the worker to cooperate. It upheld the earlier recommendation with a clarification that checkout assignments should occur only in truly exceptional circumstances.