Former Clerys workers stage protest in Dublin

Former Clerys workers held a protest outside the department store on O'Connell Street, Dublin, on Saturday to mark the ninth month since its closure.

Clerys was bought by a consortium of property speculators, Natrium, on Friday, June 12th.

More than 400 staff members lost their jobs with no notice on the day of the sale and the store was closed.

The closure drew heavy criticism from unions and the Government.

About 30 former Clerys workers attended the protest and said they are demanding a meeting with Natrium.

Siptu sector organiser Teresa Hannick said workers have had no contact with Natrium since the closure.

“Nine months on, Natrium have refused to even acknowledge the existence of these workers.

Review

In January the Government committed two law experts to carry out a review of company law following the closure of Clerys.

Kevin Duffy, chairman of the Labour Court, and Nessa Cahill, a company law specialist, are to deliver their report this month, with recommendations on how to prevent what happened to the 460 staff from happening again.

The review looked at how to prevent companies from avoiding their responsibility to employees.

Ms Hannick called on the caretaker Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton to make the findings of the report public.

“We want him to make the report public because we believe that will go a long way to change the law and make sure other workers don’t have to go through what the Clerys workers went through,” she said.

Ms Hannick said some former Clerys workers are finding it difficult to get full-time employment in the retail sector.

“Some of the former Clerys workers find their age goes against them when applying for jobs, even though they have plenty of experience,” she said.

“In the retail sector, full-time jobs that give guaranteed full-time hours are thin on the ground and it’s a different situation to the guaranteed hours they would have had in Clerys and the rate of pay they would have had.”

Ms Hannick called on Natrium to meet the former Clerys workers before they make any changes to the Clerys building.