Workers at a 105-year-old butcher shop in Cork city centre yesterday staged a sit-in protest following a row over redundancy terms.
O'Donovan's butchers on Princes Street first opened its doors in 1900 and is a family run business now in its third generation.
Earlier this month management announced the shop would close on June 28th because of a downturn in business.
However, on Thursday afternoon staff members were given their final pay packets and told not to report to work again.
Seven of the 40 full- and part-time workers decided to stage a sit-in at the shop and have been there ever since.
One of them, Martin Higgins, has worked with O'Donovan's for 23 years and says he is horrified at management's treatment of their loyal staff.
"I have been offered statutory redundancy from the Government. I am getting nothing from the company. I have just bought a brand new house with a hefty mortgage and I have no way to pay it. It is a shame what is being done to us. We have between 20 and 40 years service in here and we just hope we get what we deserve."
Mandate union representative Jim O'Connell said yesterday he was appalled that O'Donovan's had refused his request to take the redundancy matter to the Labour Relations Commission.
Mr O'Connell said his aim was to get a reasonable severance package for staff who had spent most of their working lives behind the counter of the wellknown butcher shop.
"We would have hoped that the company would have gone to the Labour Relations Commission to resolve this issue."
Calls to O'Donovan's management remained unanswered yesterday. However, earlier this month store manager, Ray Connolly, attributed the closure to a downturn in trading in the city centre. The lengthy works in Princes Street during the implementation of the Cork Main Drainage Scheme made the butchers an unattractive proposition for customers, he said. O'Donovan's butchers also struggled in recent years to compete with larger supermarkets, he added.
The Princes Street butchers specialised in vacuum packing for visitors travelling within Ireland and the Irish travelling abroad. They also traded in Christmas hampers which were sold to local businesses.
Employees at the butchers' second premises in Wilton shopping centre on the southside of Cork city will not be impacted by the closure of the Princes Street store.