Investigators defend action in Clerys case

A decision by inspectors investigating the collective redundancies of 460 Clerys’ workers to enter the offices of D2 Private Ltd was made legitimately and in the public interest following the “traumatic” redundancies, the High Court has been told.

Shane Murphy, counsel for the inspectors, urged the court not to halt the continuing investigation by the inspectors, which involved them taking from the offices documents and a computer linked to the store’s takeover in June 2015.

The workers lost their jobs on June 12, 2015, hours after Clerys was sold to a joint venture, Natrium by its previous owners, the US Gordon Brothers group.

Natrium is a joint venture made up of Cheyne Capital Management in the UK and a company of Deirdre Foley, owner of D2.

Appointed by the Workplace Relations Commission, the inspectors are opposing a challenge by D2 and Ms Foley concerning the powers of the inspectors and their reliance on provisions of the 1977 Protection of Employment Act and the 2015 Workplace Relations Act to enter the premises and take documents.

The challenge was brought after the inspectors, with gardaí, entered D2’s offices at Harcourt Terrace, Dublin, last May and seized various materials. D2 and Ms Foley claim the inspectors can only take documents and materials relevant to their investigation and there was no constitutional basis for the inspectors actions in relation to his clients.

In a sworn statement Ms Foley says she has been the subject of intense publicity since the Clerys transaction.

is set to conclude today.