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Updated 3.40pm
HUNDREDS HAVE ATTENDED a protest in support of Clerys workers who lost their jobs following the shock closure of the business last Friday.
The lunchtime rally, organised by trade union SIPTU, was held under the department store’s iconic clock on O’Connell Street.
A petition signed by attendants called on the new owners of Clerys to meet with workers.
John Crowe, who worked in the store for 43 years, told TheJournal.ie that staff had not even been allowed to collect their belongings from lockers in the store on the day it closed.
We were treated disgracefully. They wouldn’t treat dogs that badly… I don’t see myself employed again. I’m 62 and I went into Clerys at 16.
In a speech, Lord Mayor of Dublin Christy Burke said that Clerys’ owners “should be hauled before the courts” for their “bully boy tactics”.
SIPTU sector organiser Teresa Hannick told RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke that KPMG met with the union’s members this morning.
She described the meeting as “robust and frank”, with “a lot of anger” from some members.
Hannick told Newstalk Breakfast earlier that some of the staff were owed four or five weeks’ wages but it appeared the consortium that bought the business on Friday, Natrium, wouldn’t provide any relief to employees.
They won’t even talk to the workers,” she said. ”We can’t expect or hold up much hope that there will be any enhanced redundancy here.”
However, Hannick said it appeared the government’s insolvency and social insurance funds would pay the money owed to workers. That was limited to two weeks of pay for every year of service, subject to a maximum earnings cap of €600 per week.
A note posted on the Clerys website today said that any unused gift vouchers purchased by customers could not be redeemed now that the store has closed.
If you have made any payment by credit or debit card for a product that has not been delivered, or if a gift voucher was purchased with a credit or debit card, it may be possible to get a refund from your card provider via “chargeback”.
Shock closure
Boston-based Gordon Brothers sold the 150-year-old store to the Natrium consortium, which is made up of Irish investors D2 Private and UK-based Cheyne Capital Management.
The company that operated the store was immediately put into liquidation, but the separate firm under which the property is owned remains in operation – enabling the buyers to exploit the prime site for a profit.
The store lost about €4.3 million over the past three years after being put into receivership in 2012.
The job losses include about 130 people directly employed in the department store and its behind-the-scenes operations, and another 330 who worked for the 50 concession holders trading in the building. Many only learned their jobs were gone through the media.
The concessions holders have said they are owed up to six weeks’ takings, worth as much as €2 million, but the sums went unpaid yesterday when they fell due.
They have also called for the immediate return of €3 million in their stock which has been shut inside the premises since the locks were changed on Friday.
https://vine.co/v/eO3rZeBIZKV
‘Very insensitive’
Taoiseach Enda Kenny this morning said the closure “could have been handled a lot better” considering it was such a symbolic business.
Given that it is such an iconic building in the middle of O’Connell St and workers have in some cases been there for over 40 years, it was in my view very insensitive,” he said.
There has been speculation the building will be developed into a combined retail and hotel complex, with the possibility of offices being opened on the higher floors.
However it has also been suggested the building would be best suited to a mall featuring destination stores to lure in customers.
Speaking in the Dáil this afternoon, Kenny said government had been told by the liquidators that the majority of workers were made redundant and will be issued with their P45s this week.
He said some payroll staff may be kept on during the liquidation process. Kenny described the actions of the Clerys owners as “grossly insensitive and appalling”.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin called for a review of company law and industrial relations law. Sinn Féin’s Gerry Adams called for the government to legislate for collective bargaining.
Kenny said that Minister Ged Nash would prepare a report for government on all of the issues surrounding the closure. He added that the Department of Social Protection would expedite statutory redundancy payments for workers.
- additional reporting by Catherine Healy and Hugh O’Connell
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Another victiim of the EU vampire. I’m sure German exporters will be happy.
The great Euro invasion continues to take over country’s,And not a shot fired. NWO.
Don’t do it..!
Lambs to the slaughter !!
The Fourth Reich has another vassel state !
Idiots.
Amadans :) First thoughts was same as you Idiots.
132,000,000 banknotes….that’s a lot of confetti
Poland still haven’t started using euro was there for a weekend & still use their own currency…. Be interesting to see what will happen with lithuania …
Poland has the only economy in Europe that did not go into recession since the stuff hit the fan in 2008. They’d have been mad to join it in recent years as they would have had to pour money down a black hole for the likes of Greece.
Instead, they were able to use the same money to develop the country after decades of neglect under Russia. It seems to have been money well-spent. In some aspects, the country looks more developed than anywhere in Western Europe now. The motorway network, for example, is absolutely outstanding. Still a lot of work to do, but keeping the zloty for now was one very good choice on Poland’s part. And this coming from someone who lived in Poland and quite pro-euro.
Could that be because their people who are all over the world are sending the money home from the countries they are working in and the euro worth a hell of alot more than polish currency?
People i know from poland and buying and building houses and apartments from their earnings here in Ireland. I dont believe they have property tax or water charges or even road tax etc… food is cheap as hell and black market clothing cars etc, rampant there. So comparing like for like not the same.
They have property tax, water charges and road tax is included in the price of petrol. Food is cheap, yes. But that is because Poland can produce virtually all kinds of food apart from bananas and pineapples. Black market clothing? Don’t know where you got that from. The biggest shopping centres in Europe are to be found in Poland and they are packed to the rafters every Saturday.
And yes, Poland benefits a lot from remittances from its people who live abroad. But that can only go so far in a country of 38 million people.
right, so poland isn’t a poor economy then? right, never knew that. wow. give them a hand, grow bigger boots, forget everything. i was expecting that though. i know a few here, renting out their non-disclosed properties in Poland and claiming SW assistance here. easy i guess when you’ve got a lazy force here to investigate it. They have been reported though. For a country like Ireland that can still offer FREE education to help our own unemployed but is taken FULL advantage of by the new members would suggest to me that its their countries that are not just in recession, they’re in it up to their heads.
Course its better here, which explains. Trying to make out its better there, does not wash. Pride is it? Self esteem, chip?
Lithuania? Must be no access to any media weather it’s propaganda or not. Talk about jumping onto a sinking ship. The Germans are happy another country to rape. ..
All of a sudden I can hear Queens ‘Another one bites the dust’ in my head…
Give them six months before they realize there fu€£
When the prices of their food and rent and power sky rockets to pay for the differences between the value of their money and euro.
Most places have been displaying prices in Litas and Euros for last few months. What will impact Lithuania more is the Russian economy, loads of Russians and Belarusians visit coastal resorts in Lithuania and spend small fortunes (Cost more than 2 weeks average Lithuanian Industrial wage to stay in a 4\5 Star Hotel in Palanga for 1 night).
Allegedly a lot of Litas from under the mattress being spent recently.
DONT. DO. IT !!!!!!!,
Prepare yourselves Lithuania… Price rises on the way…
Fools
Lithuania are getting in as we prepare to exit ……
God help them
What a disaster! … More money for the elite, and of course all polls taken indicated that the vast majority didn’t want to join the EU , just the countries elite wanting to join up with the EU’s parasite class, so they can rape the nation.
The only logical explanation is these euro-haters must be functionality illiterate.
“Suffered deep recession in 2009, biting austerity measures far exceeding those of Western Europe turned the economy around….”
For those that like to blame the EU for Ireland’s problems… Denial, it’s not just a river in Egypt you know.
I’m sorry I had to say this…. There is obviously a lot of Germans or people who still think the euro can be saved (euro lovers) …. due to all the red thumbs on the comments. … People it’s over the sooner we realise it the better. …
A mistake of expansion.
Their problems are just beginning.
Obviously they will cause their money is worth shi* on the international markets. Creating these quango currencies when their economic value isnt on par with the rest of more well off countries only creates black hole. Its in their best interest to do so. Not in our best interest though. The more countries that are in this euro currency joke the less bartering needed and de values other countries value as a trading area. Having different currencies makes much more sense. Funny how the governments dont seem to give a toss about that as they still have their money and riches and so do the rich. When are people going to wake the hell up. It is like the euro vision joke. As they will all just trade with their neighbours. The stronger the currency the better the country does. UK have right idea keep their currency value being worth more than euro as would Irish currency be worth more and Norway etc…
Spoken like a person who has absolutely not the slightest idea what QANGO means or stands for…
What does this mean for Ireland?
It means they get on board and gain out of euro as their currency worthless compared to euro,there fore they are already in debt by billions. lol Meaning another country for you and i to bail out in about ten years when they go bang.
That’s not correct. Like most lefties you ignore several relevant facts. The ECB now supervise and regulate banks and Euro economies are limited to a budget deficit of 3%. Don’t let the facts get in the way of course and keep promising Shangri-La you can no longer deliver along with Adams, Murphy, Higgins et al
HURRAY! HURRAY!! HURRAY!!!
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Next Ukraine but they have to finish ethnic cleansing first in the East with their neo-nazi paramilitaries who are killing beside the Kiev army…
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