Former Debenhams workers feel they are not getting justice

FORMER Debenhams workers feel they are not receiving justice” for the way they were treated during the loss of their jobs when the UK retailer closed 11 stores in Ireland.

It resulted in the loss of over 1,000 jobs and led to one of the longest strike actions in the history of the State, 406 days in total.

For over a year picket lines campaigned seeking a fair redundancy package.

This included former Debenhams staff at its store in The Square in Tallaght, which employed approximately 100 people, of which staff reported was operating profitably at the time of the job losses.

Former Debenhams workers were awarded two compensation offers in the last year.

However, liquidators KPMG confirmed this week that they intend to appeal a recent Labour Court award to the former Debenhams workers on a point of law.

The court upheld a previous Workplace Relations Commission ruling that the workers were entitled to two weeks pay on foot of a redundancy consultation that began late and wasn’t allowed proper time to consider alternative options.

The award was reduced from four weeks to two after the industrial relations arbitrator failed to uphold a WRC ruling that the liquidators had failed to provide relevant information to the union during the consultation.

Bryan Roche, a former Debenhams employee in The Square for nine years said: “It feels like they repeatedly want to prevent the former Debenhams workers from receiving any justice and recompense for the despicable way they were treated by their former employer.

“A former employer who took advantage of the Covid pandemic when they closed all stores early in the lockdown and sacked all their staff with a generic email. The closure meant that all staff lost their agreed redundancy entitlements, while substantial millions were dispersed to various preferential creditors and other faceless profiteers.”