Clerys staff treatment ‘appalling’

The Taoiseach says the company law review group should examine the events surrounding the closure of Clerys which led to the “grossly insensitive and appalling” treatment of the staff who worked there for up to 43 years.

Mr Kenny came under pressure from opposition leaders in the Dáil to introduce legislative changes which would prevent the events of last Friday from happening again. The Taoiseach said current legislation is “tried and trusted”.

But he added: “The Minister of State, Deputy Gerald Nash, will prepare a report for the Government on all of the issues surrounding this matter. Perhaps it might be appropriate for the company law review group to examine what happened and how it evolved. The meetings that will take place in the next short period will bring to light all of the issues that evolved before this insensitive, swift action was taken following the court’s decision to appoint a liquidator. The question of company law is one that, in the context of Clerys, could be examined by the company law review group.”

He said the treatment of workers was grossly insensitive and appalling.

Yesterday afternoon, up to 1,000 people, including staff, their families and members of the public, attended a two-hour protest rally in Dublin City centre.

John Finn, who had worked at the store for 43  years. Pictures: Sasko Lazarov / Photocall Ireland

Addressing the crowd, Siptu shop steward and Clerys worker John Crowe said he had been left dazed by the sudden closure last Friday of a store in which he had worked for more than 40 years.

“No one deserves to be treated the way I and my colleagues have been. We gave decades of service to Clerys but were pushed out on the street with not even a thank-you. Workers should not and cannot be allowed to be treated in this manner.”

Susie Gaynor-McGowan, who worked in Clerys for 11 years, told the crowd that she had only learned that the store had closed on social media. “In the year 2015, workers should not be just thrown out in the manner that we were. The message that the owners should take from this protest is that the Clerys workers will not stop until we are treated fairly,” she said.

Earlier, the liquidators of the company confirmed to jobs junior minister Jed Nash and to worker unions that the 130 directly employed staff will only get the minimum statutory redundancy payments and that the money would have to come from the State. Mr Nash said liquidation should only ever be the nuclear option for a company and should only be granted sparingly.

“I front and centre made it very clear to the liquidator that it was my opinion that the liquidator and the former company should work to identify resources to make sure the workers in Clerys who had been so coldly and callously treated should receive funds for ex-gratia payments and it should not simply be the case that the State in this case should be the funder of the redundancy scheme,” he told RTÉ radio.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin joins former  workers and supporters.

Mr Nash said the episode had left a very bad taste in the mouths of all government ministers and the public in general. “It is not the type of business culture we want to see evolve in this country,” he said.

“I have a moral responsibility to call out the new owners of the company and make the case that they should engage with the workers, explain the situation to them, look them in the eye and explain to them what has happened here and explain to me as the Minister for Employment what their plans for the site are. I will be contacting Natrium, the company that have bought the property in recent days, to make sure we can get a meeting with them. I want them to make it clear to me what their objective for the site is. There is a moral responsibility for them to engage with the workers and trade unions.”