Tesco has defended its plans to move 300 long-serving workers onto the less generous contracts which apply to thousands of Tesco staff recruited since 1996.

Tesco employs around 14,500 staff in Ireland - and around 1,000 of those were hired prior to 1996.

Staff recruited after 1996 were hired on less generous contracts with liability for more flexibility in their hours.

Tesco recently announced that it wanted to "migrate" the 1,000 pre-1996 workers to the newer contract.

It said it needed to do so to allow for more flexibility in how staff were rostered and to enhance customer service.

Arriving for talks at the Workplace Relations Commission this morning, Tesco Director of Corporate Affairs Christine Heffernan insisted that for the vast majority of affected employees, the new contracts would result in an increase in their rate of pay.

She said that the company would also pay some compensation to anyone experiencing a loss as a result of the transfer, and there would be a "goodwill" payment of €3,000 to all affected employees.

Tesco has also re-opened a voluntary redundancy scheme which has already been accepted by 700 of the 1,000 workers originally intended to move to the new contract, with an average redundancy payout of €100,000.

Ms Heffernan said the pre-1996 contract had been drawn up at a time when stores did not open late or at weekends, and was now "out of kilter" with how Tesco and the retail market operate, as well as customer shopping trends.

She said the new contract would allow Tesco to schedule more people to work at the busiest times of the week - and create a fair workplace for all colleagues. 

Mandate Assistant General Secretary Gerry Light said the dispute was now entering the endgame.

He said members were determined to stop Tesco from implementing the unilateral decision.

He said that was why they came to the brink of an industrial dispute earlier this week.

He said there were only so many times that the union could defer a strike, so they are attending the WRC as a "last ditch" measure to see if they can find a resolution.

He said securing a settlement would require compromise and meaningful negotiations.

Sources on both sides said a final decision is unlikely today, with further talks scheduled for Tuesday. 

A threatened strike which would have affected 70 Tesco stores was deferred to allow for today's talks. 

Mandate represents thousands of staff in Tesco, while SIPTU represents around 500.

SIPTU represents around 25 of the 300 employees affected by the proposed contract change.