Workers ‘shocked and amazed’
Adding insult to injury was the offer of statutory redundancy of just two weeks’ pay per year of employment to staff who had worked for the company for an average of 14.5 years each.
Father-of-four James Morrissey clocked up 28 years’ service for the company, 26 of those under the ownership of Dairygold and the remainder with Reox Holdings, the current owners of 4Home.
“We got the news on Wednesday. We were absolutely gutted, shocked and amazed,” he said.
“We all love our jobs here. We had been on to the company as late as the week before, asking what the news was because there were rumours circulating. The company denied it, said “no it was not happening”.
“They said they were in negotiations with Dairygold to take back all the shops. Now they are just taking back seven of them and three are left out. They are only taking back shops that have agri-hardware.”
He said the suddenness of the announcement — staff were called in and handed their notice of redundancy — caught everyone off guard.
“There was no talk~ to the union before they made the announcement. The first the union knew about it was when I rang,” he said.
Mr Morrissey and many of his colleagues believe the store was still viable.
“Our stocks are literally gutted now. We did not order any stock for the last number of weeks. They fobbed us off as to why that was the case.
“For example, we have not had white paint, which was the most popular colour, for the last three weeks.”
He said the future was daunting for staff with so few jobs available in the current climate.
“I have four kids — some of the others have small kids — so we didn’t want to be here overnight last night. But (after a meeting on Thursday) we looked at what options we had and realised we did not have any other choice but to sit in.”
“The only contact with management was two notes handed to us saying we had breached procedural agreements and as a result of that they would be issuing us with dismissal and would meet with us on Monday morning.
“They also said if we did not leave the premises by 10am they would be initiating proceedings to have us removed. It is bully-boy tactics.”
Local people have been flocking to the store to offer support to the protesting staff, some of them bringing food.
