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THE DEMISE OF the Celtic Tiger has affected a huge amount of peoples’ lives in Ireland, something the recent sale and liquidation of Clerys in Dublin serves as a harsh reminder of.
The list of well known companies going to the wall keeps on being added to in Ireland: Vita Cortex, La Senza, Paris Bakery, HMV (since brought back from the dead by restructuring specialists Hilco Capital), Game, and now Clerys.
All household names. All gone.
The circumstances in all these cases are strikingly similar – in every instance the actual blow is delivered out of the blue, with staff left to pick up the pieces.
But what’s it like to go through a liquidation?
“It’s absolutely devastating,” Tara Keane told TheJournal.ie.
Tara worked for lingerie store La Senza when it was liquidated suddenly by KPMG (the same firm behind the winding up of both IBRC and Clerys incidentally) in 2012.
“For us, we weren’t even told until after it had happened, we got a phone call from England to tell us, so there was no face to face at all,” she says.
We had a sit in that lasted a week in January, but in the end we just got our statutory entitlements.
That’s a double kick in the teeth really because the liquidators just end up claiming statutory redundancy back from the government anyway, so in effect you’re funding your own redundancy.
It was ever thus. Liquidations are not a phenomenon confined to just the post-Tiger years.
Eddie O’Carroll went through the Bell Lines liquidation of 1997 as an employee.
The Dutch shipping company was wound up in the High Court in July of that year, with the company citing “Waterford terminal failures” and “channel tunnel competition” as the reasons for their demise.
“At the time no-one in Ireland had a good job, so I considered myself lucky, I loved what I did,” he told TheJournal.ie.
The company had about 200 employees in Ireland when it was liquidated suddenly following a period of examinership.
Those who were to stay on following the process had already been given their titles and roles, that was Monday, by Wednesday we knew the company was going to go.
Proof that redundancy-related farragoes are not confined to recent times, the employees at Bell eventually emerged with half a week’s salary for every year worked, about a month’s wages for Eddie after 24 years service.
“I would see the whole experience as a cynical exercise on behalf of those who bought the company,” he said.
At the time we were the biggest shipping company in Western Europe – there’s no doubt in my mind that company could have been saved if the will was there.
Whatever about me, the hauliers and owner-drivers who worked for Bell, the people in the background – they were essentially left with nothing.
For me, I immediately looked to set up my own business, so I was on a high of sorts when the liquidation happened. That was July. It wasn’t until Christmas that the horribleness of the situation really hit me.
It even happened when there was a general election on, which meant that no politician wanted to touch the situation for fear of jeopardising their seat.
“It’s just an immoral thing to do,” says Keane.
There’s a recession on, fair enough, but just because a company can do this sort of thing legally, that doesn’t mean that they should.
But what can be done? Can these situations be saved by industrial action? Is there any hope for justice for the Clerys workers, the latest pawns in the corporate game of chess?
“You have to keep it in the public eye,” says Keane, who in a kind of happy coincidence ended up working for Mandate trade union in the fallout from the La Senza liquidation (“I love it, couldn’t imagine myself working anywhere else now.”).
If it had been me (re Clerys) I would have stayed in protesting on the Friday night.
People need to see the human face. They don’t care about businesses dying, but they care about people.
Keep the media interested, and tell everyone who the people are who are perpetrating these liquidations.
Take the case of Dunnes at the moment (the employees of whom Mandate represent). The public are starting to get angry.
They see (Dunnes CEO) Margaret Heffernan named on rich lists on one hand and her workers subsisting on useless contracts that they’d be better off being unemployed than being signed up to on the other.
That’s how to make the difference, because when it comes down to it the public cares.
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Don’t worry Joan Burton got the photo op with siptu all is well
I hate to pi ss everyone off but if you buy a company you can do what you like with it. if they want to shut it down they can if they want to make everyone redundant they can. blame the people who sold it for not insuring the employees were protected.
What about the corporate and legal acrobatics to seperate the valuable Clerys property from the operations side in order to asset strip company? The law is always and ever a valuable ally of the capitalist parasites.
what about the redundancy that is paid to the deserving employee’s, will they the company be able to avail of gov rebate for this?
Or the fact that the new owners are hedge funds based in tax havens like Cayman and Guernsey so that they can avoid making any contribution to the society they feed on? Its enough to make a fella very cynical about this whole capitalism con job.
I do blame the company but labour voted against a bill that would prevent this mess so Joan shouldn’t be off the hook
KPMG Liquidation team is working away trying to determine when Building was floated away from original Clery entity.
It would have been sharp, and probably illegal, practice for a valuable Building to be prised away from an entity without proper provision having been made for imbedded liabilities pertaining to accumulation of staff entitlements, at transaction execution stage.
Surely the unions would never have allowed such an occurrence?
Unions have been neutered by paid off leaders , the members need to step up at grass roots levels and throw out the Jack O’Connors and Beggs they also need to disassociate themselves with the Labour Party who no longer represent working people in Ireland .
all will be OK,ged Nash is doing a report on it.
Good old Ged nothing to worry about now Ted.
Sad…but the only thing you can guarantee in life is change.
very slow
What ‘justice’ are the workers looking for exactly? I know it sucks, but the company is broke – they have no money. It’s a simple concept to grasp. It’s as pointless as trying to fine a homeless person 1000 pounds.
They are looking for more support from goverment and possibility of changing company law from repeating the same to other closures in future. If said goverment can introduce drug laws within 24hours they can introduce laws to protect worker redundancy and goods suppliers from being bottom of the barrel at every liquadation.
Building is wasted being occupied by a Dept store that’s basically a functionally bankrupt zombie company…
Hopefully it will be turned into a functional landmark by new owners. Not until they clean up and re-zone O’Connell street for redevelopment.
maybe another Dr Quirkies
Principles did this.
Split the good business away from the debts and carry on regardless.
Leaving the government to pick up the tab.
Remember the liquidator gets paid from the business, the employees get paid by the government. Reforms to the redundancy payout system didn’t go far enough, it is being used as a savings scheme for business that are looking for a way out.
The truth about this is that the company was operating at a loss for the last three years with no sign of it getting better. The parent company was propping it up to the tune of circa 1m a year. They decided then that they couldn’t continue to carry on like this. The way it’s set up is that a holding parent company owns the property and then an operating company takes the lease, employs all the staff and gives out all the concessions. This means that if they ever want to wind it up, all the debts and liabilities sit in the operating company, and all the assets sit in the operating company. The holding company sold it’s shares to a liquidator a few weeks back for £1, and told the operating company that they wouldn’t be able to take on a lease after the current one ended in August. The operating company were then forced to self appoint liquidators, as otherwise the liquidator who was sold the shares could have started to seize assets (i.e. any money in their bank account or other such stuff) and take it for themselves leaving the company in a much worse situation. So the company self appointed so that they would be best able to serve the employees through this process. Had they not done this, the situation would have been a million times worse. Instead of everybody getting up in arms about it, I’d be more inclined to say thank you to the company who paid all these wages for three years even though the company was not viable. They could have chosen not to do anything and just saved themselves a few million. I don’t understand why people think they are owed a job, and because their employer doesn’t provide them with a comfy cozy job and an easy landing when the company goes bust, somehow they are the devil. These people are creating employment on a grand scale at a huge loss to themselves. Yes, they hoped it would go better and that the retail market would recover sooner, but it didn’t. At least those people had a job of the last three years. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a move to wipe the slate clean, to dispose of all the current debts, to be able to renegotiate the terms of all their concessions and all that, and they will start another operating company to run the place in a few months. Watch this space. These people may well have their jobs back soon enough…… unless of course they cause trouble and stage big protests…. then they’ll probably be discounted and won’t be asked back ;)
I’m a bit slow today, I thought an employee had pawned a chess game from Clerys. Thinking to myself is that not theft?
Just keep thinking about the first 5 words you said that’s the problem
Hilarious Kevin, the journal changed the headline.
No Company should be allowed to do this to any of its employees, it is wrong and clearly unjust in this so call Great Country to do business in.
The system should be changed to ensure it does not ever happen again.
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