A WEEK-LONG protest by workers at the La Senza lingerie chain in Dublin’s Liffey Valley Centre ended yesterday after an agreement was reached with the chain’s administrators KPMG.
A total of 114 employees in the chain’s eight outlets and concession stores in the Republic were made redundant on Monday after the multinational chain went into administration.
The employees were not paid for work and overtime done over Christmas and were told they might have to wait up to a year for statutory redundancy entitlements.
Yesterday, Mandate trade union, which was representing the workers in the dispute, announced it had received a letter from KPMG and at a meeting, some time after 5pm, the contents of the letter were communicated to the workers, who were “satisfied with what KPMG had to say”.
The sit-in was then ended and, while the exact details of the agreement have not been released, it is understood that KPMG has agreed to pay the workers’ wages as well as any outstanding overtime payments due.
“We are all absolutely thrilled with it. I’m just so glad to finally be home,” Tara Keane (20), one of the protesting former employees, said last night.
“I think everyone in Ireland knew this wasn’t just about us, it was a moral stand. Retail workers can’t be treated like that. Sometimes we are seen as vulnerable and companies might think they can do what they want to us.”
Ms Keane added that legislation needed to be enacted so that multinationals could not “leave at the drop of a hat” when profits began to drop.
She said that the La Senza dispute would hopefully serve as inspiration to other workers in similar situations in the future.