Tesco ordered to pay €30,000 to manager ‘demoted’ to stacking shelves
Seán McCárthaigh
Tesco has been ordered to pay €30,000 to a long-serving assistant manager of a Cavan supermarket who was effectively demoted from running a stockroom to packing shelves after it took over a store previously run by SuperValu.
The Workplace Relations Commission ruled that Tesco Ireland breached EU employment legislation when the role of assistant manager, John Walsh, who worked at McEvoy’s SuperValu supermarket in Virginia, Co Cavan for 27 years, was fundamentally changed after it took over the store in May 2025.
The transfer took place under legislation known as TUPE regulations, which protects roles and working conditions of staff when a new operator replaces an existing employer.
Despite his job title as assistant manager, Walsh said his role was principally concerned with management of the stockroom and deliveries, and he expected a seamless transfer when Tesco took over the running of the supermarket.
He told the WRC that he had no responsibility for staff rostering, disciplinary matters, performance reviews, or sales targets.
However, Walsh said Tesco advised him before the transfer that he would be placed in the position of line manager with responsibility for people management and sales targets, as his existing role did not exist under its business structure.
Walsh claimed he repeatedly informed Tesco management that he had neither the experience nor the training for such a role.
He explained that most of his previous work was not available as Tesco’s processes were automated and all deliveries were completed before he started work.
Walsh said he now packs shelves for 90 per cent of his work and reports to a team leader compared to his previous role when he had full control and directed staff.
He told the WRC that he believed he should have been offered redundancy like colleagues in the butcher’s section, which was closed after Tesco took over the supermarket.
Dajana Sinik of IBEC, who represented Tesco, said the complainant had been employed on the same terms and conditions, including his salary, as when he was working for SuperValu.
Tesco said it held individual consultations with affected staff, including Walsh, who stated that he did not wish to undertake certain functions.
The company stated no additional duties were forced on him.
It also claimed Walsh’s complaint to the WRC was “premature, speculative and procedurally defective” as it was lodged on the date his job transferred from SuperValu to Tesco to allow for any breach of TUPE regulations to have occurred.
Tesco area manager, Martin Geraghty, said he regarded Walsh’s previous role as a warehouse manager and considered a line manager as the nearest equivalent under Tesco’s management structure.
In her ruling, WRC adjudication officer, Monica Brennan, said the purpose of TUPE regulation was to protect staff and ensure their rights are safeguarded during the transfer of an undertaking to another employer.
Brennan rejected Tesco’s claim that the complaint was premature, as it had been reasonable for Walsh to infer from a lengthy consultation process that his employment would be significantly altered.
While Walsh’s contract entitled his employer to require flexibility from him, Brennan said the changes to his role went beyond the ordinary exercise of contractual flexibility.
She noted that the complainant had found his change in circumstances humiliating.
The WRC official said Tesco had failed to maintain a key aspect of Walsh’s contractual position by introducing additional layers of management between him and the store manager.
Brennan said he was entitled to have been kept in a role with similar status and seniority but was “in practical terms” demoted.
Although Walsh had expressed a preference for a redundancy payment as compensation for a breach of TUPE regulations, Brennan said she did not have the powers to compel Tesco to do so.
Finding that the breach was substantial, she directed Tesco to pay the complainant €30,000 in compensation.
