{"id":6168,"date":"2015-10-08T11:31:12","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T10:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=6168"},"modified":"2015-10-08T16:40:41","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T15:40:41","slug":"all-island-fair-pay-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=6168","title":{"rendered":"Fair pay victory"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite today (October 8) hailed an all-island fair pay victory, after Lidl caved to union and public pressure and agreed to include Northern Ireland as well as the Republic of Ireland in its pledge to pay all staff the Living Wage.<\/p>\n

 
\nLidl announced last month that it would pay its entire staff in England, Wales and Scotland a standard rate of \u00c2\u01418.20 an hour but inexplicably excluded Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe company initially said that Northern Ireland workers would not receive the pay rise because their business was organised differently in NI.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite challenged their position \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and together with consumers and communities organised protests outside Lidl supermarkets in Belfast and Derry, which were set to take place today.<\/p>\n

 
\nAfter Lidl made a U-turn on their pay policy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and announced it would include the Republic of Ireland as well \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the protests were called off.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a very significant victory for Lidl workers, our members and Unite, who led the campaign to demand equal pay for workers in Northern Ireland,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite regional officer Susan Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is clear that Lidl had no intention of paying Northern Ireland workers the same as those in England, Scotland and Wales,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis victory has been won by workers joining Unite and getting organised as well as the strength of the wider solidarity expressed behind our #LidlFairPay campaign.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite has now called on Lidl to reconsider its decision earlier this week to dismiss a worker whose only crime was to question the fairness of Lidl pay policy on Facebook.<\/p>\n

 
\nFitzgerald noted that Lidl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new pay policy means other retail chains are now \u00e2\u20ac\u0098on notice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that they need to pay the Living Wage.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere can be no justification for poverty pay,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are particularly pleased that Lidl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s adoption of the Living Wage will extend to their workforce in the Republic of Ireland,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is an all-island victory for both Lidl staff and Unite.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nFitzgerald said that Unite will continue to build its membership base in Lidl with a focus on addressing minimum hours and the precarious nature of contracts held by many workers.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is vital that all workers have the security and guaranteed hours to mean this Living Wage announcement translates into Living Pay,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 
\nLast week, supermarket chain Morrison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s followed Lidl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lead to pay its entire staff the Living Wage of \u00c2\u01418.20 an hour.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite today (October 8) hailed an all-island fair pay victory, after Lidl caved to union and public pressure and agreed to include Northern Ireland as well as the Republic of Ireland in its pledge to pay all staff the Living Wage.   Lidl announced last month that it would pay its entire staff in England, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[414,23,219,298],"wps_subtitle":"Lidl U-turn shows power of solidarity","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6168"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6186,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6168\/revisions\/6186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}