Justice demand marks Clerys anniversary
by Bernard Harbor
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A demand for justice for Clerys workers was projected onto the façade of the iconic O’Connell Street building to mark the first anniversary of the department store’s closure at the weekend. Former Clerys’ workers assembled at the site to mark their year-long campaign, which recently saw Dáil Éireann pass a motion calling on the Government to legislate to strengthen worker protections in similar situations.
SIPTU official Ethel Buckley, who led the Clerys workers’ campaign, said the anniversary should remind politicians of their promises. The law currently allows unscrupulous owners to exploit legal loopholes to create bogus insolvency and redundancy situations, and avoid their responsibilities to staff and creditors.
Ms Buckley said: “Politicians from all parties in Dáil Éireann rightly condemned the treatment of Clerys workers this time last year. These same politicians must now legislate without delay to ensure such a scenario can never happen again. This would bring new security to Ireland’s working people and be a fitting legacy to the brave Clerys workers.”
The Dáil motion, passed on 1st June 2016, called for the implementation of the recommendations of the ‘Duffy-Cahill’ review of laws on employee protection when assets are separated from operating companies. It was proposed by the Labour Party and supported by Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, and a number of smaller parties and non-government independents.
The Duffy-Cahill report recommended changes to the law to ensure a minimum 30-day consultation period before employers can implement collective redundancies. It also called for a mechanism to recover assets transferred out of a business in certain circumstances.
Clerys: 12th June 2015 In the early hours of 12th June 2015, Natrium bought the OCS group, which owned Clerys. It immediately appointed new directors and transferred the company’s assets to a “distinct and separate” trading company for €1.
Later that day, it successfully sought the appointment of a liquidator. At 5.30pm it told staff and concession owners that the store was closing for good.
The staff were sacked and escorted off the premises by security guards. They only received statutory redundancy payments and the taxpayer picked up the tab, with Natrium paying nothing. Despicable, yes. But also entirely legal. |
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