Staff devastated at Debenham’s ‘Lack of sincerity’

Staff devastated at Debenham’s ‘Lack of sincerity’

By Maurice Garvey

AFTER 30 years working with Debenhams/Roches in Tallaght, Carol Quinn received a “generic email” on April 9 that her job was gone and asked her to contact welfare.ie.

This same generic email was sent to approximately 100 staff at the Tallaght store and up to 2,000 workers at 11 stores nationwide - no matter how many years of service they gave to the UK retailer.

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Debenham’s staff standing together but apart

It is particularly galling for staff, who are aware that former Debenhams chief executive Sergio Bucher was handed a £700,000 payoff in the UK 12 months ago, despite presiding over the department store’s collapse into administration.

Three days prior to the generic email, on Monday, April 6, staff at Debenhams in The Square, received notification from the company that Debenhams UK would enter administration.

The next day they were informed that this would not affect Irish stores.

However, on Thursday, April 9, staff received an email 30 minutes before the 1pm news on RTE that the Irish arm of the company would be going into liquidation with no probability of re-opening.

“Some of our colleagues failed to receive emails and found out through family or friends. No concessions were informed, this is totally unacceptable,” said Eileen McDonnell, a senior sales advisor for almost 10 years.

Carol Quinn, shop steward representing Mandate Trade Union in Debenhams Tallaght, would have been working for Debenhams/Roches 30 years this October.

“My own personal feeling is one of hurt, anger, disappointment and sadness,” said Ms Quinn, a Terenure resident.

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Staff working in the store

“After 30 years of dedication in my job I got a generic letter by email on Holy Thursday. It was such a shock. I had to get others to read it over and over.”

The massive 44 sq ft Debehams store on the ground floor of The Square contained a number of concessionary staff who managed independent booths in store.

Staff at Debenhams Tallaght spoke  this week – all with varying years of service – are devastated at Debenham’s “lack of sincerity”.

Ms Quinn continued: “We feel we have been treated so badly and to be told you are just getting statuary redundancy just tipped us over the edge.

Many members have mortgages, loans, kids and need their jobs. How are they expected to manage. We feel they used Covid as an opportunity to get out and leave us high and dry.”

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Carol Quinn, shop stewart representing Mandate Trade Union in Debenhams

This view is backed up by Mandate.

At the High Court last week, when liquidators were appointed to the Irish arm of Debenhams, Counsel said Mandate were critical of the treatment of staff and accused the company of “cynically using Covid-19 as an excuse to shut down stores”.

Eileen McDonnell said the email ended with the words “thanks for loyalty and good luck in future”.

“Staff in our store were like a family. We worked for many years through staff shortages and pay freezes to keep the store open and the business afloat.

When the store closed temporarily on March 23 over Covid-19, staff voluntarily went in on three separate days to pack up Easter eggs for shipping, and valuable stock for safe keeping.

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Debenham’s staff at one of their Christmas parties

 

Believing we were doing all of this to protect our store. All of this seems very planned with hindsight.”

Nicola Little (32), from Citywest, a Deputy store manager in the Tallaght branch, served 16 years.

“Our questions are how did this come about, why were we given false information?

“Up until the store closed for Covid, business was fine. Tallaght was a really good store and making money. My stall in cosmetics was one of the best performing.

Nicola continued: “When we got the email it was a shock to be honest. There was no sincerity.

Employers are on a covid payment but in effect liquidation will mean we have to go on Jobseekers. I’ve two young children and paying extortionate rent, a lot of staff just got houses and have mortgages to pay.

Some are older and will find it even harder to get work.”

Yasmin McEvoy (22) worked in Debenhams Tallaght for nearly four years, starting her first job when she had just turned 18.

“Three people in my house were employed by Debenhams in Tallaght, myself, my partner and my young sister who is under 18. Both have worked in the company for almost a year on temporary contracts.

They were informed on March 18 that their contracts would be ended earlier than expected on March 29.

“That was two incomes lost from our household, but I believed that my job was safe as I was on a permanent contract.”

Yasmin is also a full time student, and not eligible for social welfare but “extremely grateful” to qualify for the Covid emergency payment.

Yasmin continued: “This whole pandemic is terrifying and worrying enough without now having to stress over losing my job and having to go through a liquidator to claim overtime payments due from last month that Debenhams have said they are not in a position to pay us this month.

“Some of my co-workers have been working in the store since before I was born, and it’s hard to believe how they have been treated with a complete lack of disrespect and regard to their loyalty to the company.”

Michael Meegan, Divisional Organiser Mandate Trade Union, said they would be pursuing an opportunity for a better payment for staff.

“We had one meeting with Debenhams management on Zoom and others are planned,” he said.

“Worst case scenario is statutory redundancy, but we are hoping to see if there are other avenues to explore with liquidation.”

Eileen McDonnell, whose son also worked in the store, fears taxpayers will be hit if Debenhams do not pay redundancies “like they did for Clerys and like they bailed out Bank of Ireland, a shareholder in Debenhams.”

For Carol Quinn and the rest of the staff, the message is clear.

“We have a huge campaign going on with Mandate and we want the government to step up and get us what we deserve. A proper decent redundancy package.”

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