Irish Examiner view: A sour taste

Job layoffs

 Staff Alexsandra Emilia Bednarz, Ewa Swiniarska, and Gitana Prochoroviene of the Butchers Block who were laid off by text message an hour before they were to report for work at the Blackpool Shopping Centre, Cork

In the last few weeks, the lay-offs in the technology sector have grabbed headlines all over the world — from Twitter to Stripe, Meta to Amazon, thousands of people have lost their jobs. The true nature of some of our latter-day billionaires, as revealed by their cavalier treatment of employees, has left a distinctly sour taste in the mouth.

In recent days, we have seen similarly heartless treatment of employees of the Butcher’s Block outlets in Cork. Workers in Blackpool and Douglas were given one hour’s notice by text that their jobs were gone and that they would not be receiving back pay or redundancy — and all this with just five weeks to Christmas.

It may seem astounding that people can be treated in this way in the 21st century, but that does not soften the blow for those affected. In the wake of those recent tech industry redundancies, Government ministers have expressed their confidence that the companies involved would abide by the rules on statutory redundancies.

It is to be hoped that a similar level of interest will be expressed by those in Cabinet regarding the employees treated so shabbily by the Butcher’s Block company.