Labour Court recommends €5,000 for each driver in Tesco transfer dispute

The Labour Court recommended €5,000 compensation for each employee transferring from Tesco Ireland to Stobart (Ireland) Ltd to settle losses including staff discounts and pension benefits. The recommendation was signed on 10 November 2009. Tesco Ireland and the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union were in dispute over the proposed transfer of transport department roles, including drivers, affecting about 80 workers. The union sought an enhanced voluntary redundancy package for employees who did not want to transfer, but the Court said it could not recommend terms on that issue because Tesco had not jointly referred it. The Court also recommended that the parties consolidate existing employment agreements into one document and defer the transfer while they worked through the process.