Debenhams obtain injunction to ban former staff from blocking liquidators removing stock

Valerie Conlon, ex-Debenhams worker and shop steward for Mandate trade union in Cork, said they will continue to block the removal of stock today

Former Debenhams employees, who were made redundant earlier this year, protest outside the Four Courts today. Photo: RollingNews.

The High Court has granted an injunction which will make it illegal for former Debenhams workers to stop liquidators KPMG from removing stock from the 11 shuttered stores.

The workers, who were made redundant earlier this year, say that the proceeds from the stock must be used to pay them two weeks salary per year of service as was previously agreed by the floundering retail giant.

But Valerie Conlon, former Debenhams worker and shop steward for Mandate trade union in Cork, said that the former staff remain united and they will continue to block the removal of stock today - even if that leaves them in handcuffs by this evening.

“We are disappointed by the injunction - and angry - but we expected nothing else,” she said.

“Once the injunction is in place it will be circulated to all garda stations in about 30 minutes and we expect the vans to start arriving then to try to take the stock.

And when the vans come we will stop them. Even if that means being arrested or taken to court.

“I’m mad that our Government has not come to our aid. Fianna Fáil is supposed to be a workers’ party but they’ve taken the side of employers and big business. The Government and Micheál Martin know the consequences for us. It’s a disgrace.” 

Solidarity TD Mick Barry accompanied former Mahon Point Debenhams worker Carol Ann Bridgeman to the High Court hearing this morning when she challenged KPMG’s application for the injunction.

He said that the case has a wider significance and is really about the right to mount an effective picket in this country.

The injunction, he said, will be a blanket legal ban on workers blocking the removal of stock from 11 stores formerly owned by Debenhams and now in the hands of liquidator KPMG.

"When the vans come, we will stop them" - Former Debenhams employees and supporters protest outside the Four Courts as Debenhams' liqudators seek High Court injunctions today. Photo: RollingNews.

Mr Barry said: "The workers are fighting for four weeks redundancy pay per year of service and the most straightforward way for them to get that is from the sale of the stock. 

A court order to stop blocking the removal of stock is more or less a court order to wind down the strike.

"The Industrial Relations Act 1990 is being used as a battering ram to try and break this strike. 

Support outside the high courts for ex-Debenhams workers who are being served with an injunction today #StrikingIsNotACrime pic.twitter.com/2DlXne0Gq3

— Mick Barry (@MickBarrySP) October 13, 2020

"This law was heavily influenced by the anti-union laws introduced by the Thatcher administration in the UK in the 1980s. It does not ban picketing as such but it more or less bans the right to picket effectively."