Éirígí General Secretary Mickey Moran is encouraging people to show their support for the Debenhams workers by joining this Saturday’s national protest in Dublin. Speaking ahead of the protest he said,
“Debenhams management are trying to use the Covid-19 crisis to squirm their way out of a 2016 redundancy agreement which committed the company to paying four weeks of wages for every year of service given.
Instead they are now proposing to pay the statuary minimum of just two weeks wages per year of service. For workers who loyally served the company for years, or even decades, there are huge sums of money at stake - money which will be badly needed during the coming recession.
For those workers to be denied their entitlements has added salt to the wound of the original decision to unilaterally shut the stores without warning or discussion.
Nobody should have to protest for months on end and blockade their former workplaces to get that which is rightfully theirs. That these workers had to do so during a pandemic is particularly galling. The deserve all our support on Saturday.
The current situation was both predictable and avoidable. It has arisen because of Fine Gael’s failure to implement the recommendations of the Duff-Cahill report that was commissioned after the Clerys fiasco.
Private companies are still able to move assets and debts between various financial vehicles ahead of going into receivership or liquidation. And then when things eventually come to a head it’s the workers and the state that end up footing the bill.
This situation must be brought to an end without delay before other companies decide to shaft their workers like Debenhams are trying to do.”
Saturday’s 'Support Debenhams Workers National Protest’ will assemble at 2pm at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square, Dublin.