Former Debenhams Limerick staff mark year on picket line

FORMER retail staff in Limerick have marked the grim milestone of 365 days on the picket-line this Friday.

Workers who up to Easter 2020 were employed by Debenhams Ireland met at the former store in O’Connell Street to mark the first anniversary of the closure here.

More than 110 workers in Limerick lost their jobs when Debenhams’s British arm pulled support for its Irish operation, with liquidators from KPMG appointed a short-time later.

This sparked a round-the-clock picket outside Debenhams stores across the State with former workers left awaiting redundancy payouts.

They feel by clocking the exit of stock from the Limerick store, they are using their final bargaining chip with the liquidator.

Mike McNamara, who worked for more than 40 years in Debenhams and its predecessor Roches Stores, said: “After 365 days, we certainly do not want to be here in the way we are here, in the way we’ve been left here. It seems like there is no end. And we want an end. I’d call on governments, unions and KPMG to get their act together and give us what we are entitled to.”

His colleague Aishling O’Gorman added: “We’ve still not been allowed inside to get our belongings, it’s quite sad. We shouldn’t be marking 365 days on a picket. It’s 365 days we shouldn’t be here. We should have been looked after from the start.”

She said there has been a good atmosphere among the former colleagues, and thanked the public for the support they’ve given.

Bakehouse 22, based in Nicholas Street, delivered sandwiches and a cake adorned with a picture of the workers on it today.

“The support we’ve had is overwhelming,” Aishling added, “We’ve been through so much in the past 12 months and I’m so proud of them all and it just shows the dedication that everyone has put in.”

In December, Solas offered the 1,000-or-so former Debenhams workers across Ireland a share in a €3m training fund, something they decisively rejected in a ballot organised by their union Mandate.

Other than this, there has been no offer of an enhanced redundancy payout.

Local Sinn Fein councillor John Costelloe, who has been a constant presence on the picket line, said: “The protesters are very resolute. The fact is they haven’t got what they need or deserve.”

“We have people down here 12 months 24/7. Grandmothers, mothers away from their loved ones. I don’t think government fully realise the anguish people are going through,” he concluded.

The Limerick Leader has contacted KPMG for comment.