The three-year dispute over preChristmas Sunday working at Dunnes Stores has been resolved. Workers at Ireland's largest retail chain have voted by more than five to one to accept a new offer from the company that provides them with a Christmas bonus and an extra day's annual leave.
This means that the proposed strike due later this month will not take place. The settlement represents the first time that new, internal procedures have been used to resolve a major industrial dispute in the company.
In accepting the new terms, staff have agreed to work pre-Christmas Sundays for the same overtime rates as other Sundays. Traditionally they were paid treble time. The bonus and extra holiday leave now on offer are estimated to be worth the equivalent of treble time.
The unions agreed to suspend a strike ballot last month, when the company made the new offer. It is similar to a recommendation by the Labour Court, which the company had rejected.
Staff now will receive a Christmas bonus of a half-week's pay. Staff who joined the company before October 1994 will be paid double time for pre-Christmas Sundays - the same rate as for other Sundays - and will receive an extra day's annual leave.
Post-October 1994 staff will receive time-and-a-half for preChristmas Sundays, plus a half-week's pay as a Christmas bonus. A small number of staff who work in head office, or have slightly different contracts from other store workers, will not receive the Christmas bonus.
It has taken three years to resolve the dispute, and staff are to receive Dunnes Stores vouchers as compensation for working under protest in December 1996. Staff employed before October 1994 will receive vouchers worth £40, and newer staff, provided they have been employed for at least 12 months, will receive £20 worth of vouchers.
The general secretary of Mandate, Mr Owen Nulty, yesterday welcomed the outcome of the ballot. He said the unions would pursue the rights of the small number of staff still excluded from the bonuses.
Mr John McDonnell, SIPTU regional secretary, said the terms "effectively maintain the retail industry norm for pre-Christmas Sunday working".
A company spokesman also welcomed the outcome. He said the new terms gave a solution to the problem of pre-Christmas Sunday working which was acceptable to both sides.