UK retailer Tesco's Polish subsidiary, Tesco Polska, is the largest retailer in Poland and Britain's largest investor in the country is facing protest from workers and a possible strike. Iwona Mandat, head of the Work Confederation, Poland's newest trade union said, "Tesco's chief in London should know we want the company to grow and prosper, but we want Polish management to stop killing the brand by treating staff as subhumans. Staff toilets that regularly run out of soap and toilet paper, and workers have not had pay raises in nine years."

A Tesco spokesperson stated that the claims are unfounded and that pay increases are awarded annually and all employees at the store in Czestochowa received a pay rise in 2007 which equated to an average increase of 9%. The lowest pay rise in the store last year, says the company, was 2.4% - and that was above the rate of inflation. Since the pay award, however, inflation has taken off. It hit 4% in December, with food price inflation running at 7.9%.

The confederation has 219 members - almost half the workforce at Tesco's Czestochowa store – which may be planning to strike. Mandat says the organisation is growing fast and is in contact with disgruntled Tesco employees across Poland, including the "August 80" trade union at Tesco's store at Tychy, which is also threatening a strike. Mandat is hoping for support from the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ) as well as unionised Tesco workers in Britain. The Work Confederation is trying to negotiate a 75% pay increase and wants pay at time-and-a-half for Sundays and night shifts. The union says this would bring salaries in line with other stores.

Tesco insists that all workers were paid more than the Polish minimum wage until last month, when there was a big increase in the national minimum wage. As a result Tesco Poland does now have staff on the minimum wage. The facts may be disputed, but what is clear is that Tesco is facing a potentially damaging dispute in one of its key international markets.

Tesco Polska faces competition from rival chains such as Carrefour and Albert (formerly owned by Ahold, now also owned by Carrefour), but after buying Polish stores from German retailer Hit and Austrian retailer Julius Meinl, it has dominated the market.