Historic screening of 406 days The Debenhams Picket Line

THE Tallaght cinema screening launch of the documentary on the mammoth 406-day strike by Debenham workers takes place on Saturday, May 27, at Movies@ The Square.

Tallaght Producer Fergus Dowd and Director Joe Lee have made a 90- minute documentary about the Debenhams strike which took place across the country, including picket line at The Square in Tallaght.

The film ‘406 days The Debenhams Picket Line’ premiered at the Dublin International Film Festival in Smithfield, and is on a whistlestop tour across the country this week, taking into towns and cities where the retailer had stores.

Approximately 1,000 people at 11 Debenhams stores nationally, were unceremoniously let go on April 9, 2020, via a generic email.

One of them was Bryan Roche, who worked at The Square store for nine years.

He feels the documentary is more of a “vindication process” for the “cold and calculated way” the retailer acted to its staff, many of whom were there for decades.

“That legislation is still there.

“Any unscrupulous company can do the same thing. It started with the Clery’s workers in the noughties and successive governments have sat on their hands,” said Bryan.

“People Before Profit have put in motions to change the legislation, to credit the employees when this happens, because we are way down the pecking order.

“We didn’t even get leftovers at the buffet.”

That could change as last week, a former Debenhams worker won a case at the Workplace Relations Commission over the way she was made redundant in 2020.

The test case involved former Debenhams Henry Street shop steward Jane Crowe and could have implications for around 750 former workers.

Their trade union Mandate had accused Debenhams of failing to comply with its responsibilities in a collective redundancy scenario by not consulting with the union or providing it with information.

In its ruling, the WRC found that two separate complaints in the case were well founded and awarded a total of €2,280 in compensation to Ms Crowe.

The compensation was calculated at €1,140, the equivalent of four weeks’ pay, for each of the two complaints.

Bryan feels the doc is “historic” in highlighting some of the intimidation the mostly women on the picket lines, were subjected to at shopping centres.

“Would management have done the same thing to a group of men?”

Bryan feels let down by their trade union Mandate who “were not fully supportive” a sentiment shared by other workers during the picket, which is the longest strike action in the history of the State.

“We took on a lot, the liquidators, management, Covid, the people of Tallaght were very good to us in their support.

“If we hadn’t taken the stand we did, even those who didn’t take part in the picket, might not benefit down the line.”

The movie received a screening at the Dail last week.

Irish women’s international footballer Áine O’Gorman was on hand to lend her support for former Debenhams workers at Tallaght Stadium recently, and Tadgh Riordan Motors supported some funds for the documentary.

The documentary will be screened at The Square for seven days in a row from Friday.