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The government agreed to create a € 3 million fund for former Debenhams workers following a commitment facilitated by Labor Court President Kevin Foley.
Mr. Foley agreed to be involved in the dispute following a request from the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste.
The engagement, which lasted three weeks, ended today.
The Government agreed due to “exceptional circumstances” that it is willing to create a fund administered by Solas, with an advisory committee that includes union leaders.
It is understood that the fund will be used to provide training and career guidance to workers to help them plan for the future.
The Department of Social Protection and Income are preferred creditors and owes 18 million euros. But they concluded that it was not possible to fund the full severance pay requested by the workers.
Sources said there is no cash left in the business, while 4 million euros have been spent on rent, security and other costs. They said there is no guarantee that the shares will recover their estimated cost of 12 million euros if sold.
The former staff have held sit-ins and picket lines in search of a severance package worth two weeks’ pay per year of service in addition to the legal firings.
They say that this package was agreed with the company in a collective agreement in 2016.
The State has paid 13 million euros in severance pay.
It is understood that the unions will now vote the members on the outcome of the talks.
Tonight, shop stewards representing former Debenhams workers said they do not think the proposals are acceptable to workers.
“The workers, who have been on strike for 250 days, have not been offered anything. They will not receive a penny in additional layoff pay as a result of these proposals, ”they said in a statement.
They asked that the € 3 million fund be made available to former workers as additional redundancy payments.
“It is insulting to suggest that workers’ demands can be met with a fund for training, career guidance and business creation. As laid off workers, we are already entitled to many supports.
“Many of our colleagues have already started training and continuing their education. Many others are nearing retirement and this type of training is not practical.
“We don’t need professional guidance. What we need are resources to satisfy our just demands. “
More than 1,000 jobs were lost when Debenhams went into liquidation last April and closed its 11 stores in the Republic.
In a statement issued to the Taoiseach Department, Department of Enterprise, liquidators and unions, Mr. Foley said that the workers’ employment was terminated “in a way that does not reflect the contribution that workers have made to retailers to a who have rendered so much service ”.
However, it did not find that the terms of the 2016 severance pay agreement could apply to this year’s layoffs.
“I am aware that workers in this situation have worked very hard for many months to obtain a two-week ex gratia pay per year of service in addition to their legal right to dismissal and other payments,” he said.
He said he learned that a collective agreement was entered into in 2016 that provided that the former employer would make payments, including an ex gratia amount, to workers laid off in 2016.
“I have not been able to establish that the terms of that collective agreement were applicable to the dismissals that occur in 2020,” he said.
“In any case, it is clear that the agreement has no legal application in 2020.”
He said he was aware that a significant amount of Debenhams stock remains in the store and elsewhere.
“It is not clear that any sale of these types of shares has the capacity to exceed their cost,” he said.
“I have been widely engaged to establish, within the relevant legal frameworks surrounding the liquidation process, the degree to which the joint liquidators could be given confidence, with the support of the senior creditor, that value could be extracted from the shares. kept in liquidation in a way that could benefit former workers, ”he said.
“However, it is clear to me now that, despite extensive commitment and thorough consideration, the major senior creditors will not find it possible to compel the liquidators to do anything other than comply with the requirements of the relevant law.”
Meanwhile, the new € 3 million fund would run for two years and support education, training and business start-ups by former Debenhams workers.
During union votes on the proposals, the workers would agree to continue a pause in the picketing and the liquidators would not withdraw shares.
Foley said he recognized that the arrangements he outlined do not meet the ambitions of the former workers.
He said that after the engagement, he is satisfied that they represent the maximum achievable in a very difficult situation.
Irish independent
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