100 Days Later - Debenhams Workers Are Still Being Denied Their Rights
It has now been 100 days since the liquidation of Debenhams in the Twenty-Six Counties and the closure of eleven stores in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford and Tralee was announced. The future of another four stores in the Six Counties, where Debenhams is in receivership, is uncertain.
The April 9th closures also cost up to 2,000, mainly female, workers their jobs. About half of this number were directly employed by Debenhams, while the remainder worked for concessions based in the eleven stores. Éirígí For a New Republic stands fully behind the Debenhams workers as they fight for the redundancy packages that they are entitled to under preexisting agreements with management.
Speaking from Dublin, Cathaoirleach Éirígí, Brian Leeson, said –
“Debenhams is trying to use the pandemic as cover to permanently close its operations in the Twenty-Six Counties without paying its workers the redundancy payments that they are entitled to.
The appalling treatment of the workers, many of whom have worked for Debenhams for decades, began when many workers were informed by email that their jobs were gone.
Debenhams workers, after loyally serving the company for decades in many cases, are now being treats with absolute contempt.
The impact of the closure of Debenhams has been been significantly worsened by the company’s refusal to honour the redundancy agreement it had previously entered into.
Instead, the company and the liquidators are attempting to pay out the absolute minimum legal statutory payment of two weeks pay per year of service. The company is also refusing to pay out holiday and time-in-lieu payements that the workers are owed - theft by another name.
Éirígí supports the call of Mandate for the company to live up to the obligations it entered into in the aftermath of the Clery’s debacle in 2016. We also support the workers who have organised themselves into community-based groups to prevent the movement of valuable stock from the eleven Irish stores.
This is a fight that can be won. A victory for these workers would be a victory for all workers. And a defeat will most likely encourage other companies to abandon their redundancy agreements in the future.”