Supermarket giant Tesco are facing a challenge to their plans to expand in Ireland. A decision by An Bord Pleanala, the Irish planning board, to overturn county council approval for a 36,000sq ft supermarket and retail warehouse development may set a precedent for schemes in other parts of the country. Environmentalists combined forces with the independent grocers group, RGDATA, securing a favourable outcome based on the fact that the project would create traffic hazards and threaten retail outlets in Donegal town centre.
The Federation of Wholesale Distributors has been given assurances by the Department for Trade and Industry that their call for a fundamental review of the food and drink marketplace will be heeded. In what the federation are calling an "unprecedented" intervention by the government, secretary of state Patricia Hewitt said that she would take account of the group's views when looking into the acquisition of Safeway promising that the letter "has also been copied to the Office of Fair Trading which has also received a copy of the [Competition] commission's report".
The views of the federation were submitted after the inquiry closed. lan Toft, director general of the FWD was delighted, "usually when an inquiry closes the shutters come down. The fact that she has forwarded our letter on to the OFT is significant too".
The national minimum wage should be amended to cover 16 and 17 year olds said Sir Bill Connor, general secretary of the shop workers' union USDAW. Speaking at the TUC's annual conference in Brighton he said that "Some young workers are on as little as £1.33 an hour. This is not just cheap labour, it's shameful".
A recent Usdaw survey had shown that pay rates for under-18's ranged from £1.33 to £1.86 an hour. Commenting further he said that "Often the jobs offer no training, no qualification and not even a safe working environment".
Belgium, France and Spain legally protect their young workers. Sir Bill went on to demand that the Low Pay Commission recommend bringing 16- and 17- year-olds within the scope of minimum wage legislation.
