Over 12,000 Tesco employees are expected to begin balloting for industrial action today in a row over pay.

According to the unions, the Tesco company ignored a Labour Court recommendation to increase wages by 2%. It is expected that workers will vote in favour of walking off the job although the overall consensus won't be known for several weeks given the number of staff involved. 

The court order recommended a pay increase for 14,500 members of the Tesco workforce which backdates to April 2015 when the Mandate and Siptu trade unions initially campaigned for increases of 3 per cent. Mandate claims that some 1,000 Tesco workers are actually facing a 15% salary reduction due to a lack of of cooperation on the part of their employers.

Assistant General Secretary of Mandate Gerry Light says the mood amongst his members is grim:

''It's entirely likely, it's a real possibility because of not only the way Tesco have treated workers in respect of this 2% wage increase issue. But also, the very people that they have denied the 2% to are the people they are threatening to remove and reduce significantly their earning power on the 18th of April this year.''