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MANDATE TRADE UNION is hosting 11 demonstrations outside all Debenhams stores across Ireland this afternoon.
In early April, the company announced that it would not re-open its stores after the Covid-19 pandemic.
The closure of the stores saw the loss of 2,000 jobs and was announced after the UK retailer told staff that the business would be going into liquidation.
The company had operated four stores in Dublin, two in Cork and others in Galway, Limerick, Newbridge, Tralee and Waterford.
On Wednesday, Debenhams staff took to the streets outside the Dáil to call on politicians to take action to protect the jobs of workers.
The action outside the Dáil today followed on from other socially-distanced protests in recent weeks by staff calling on the company to offer full redundancy packages.
Mandate confirmed that today’s protests will last no longer than an hour, with all participants adhering to social distancing guidelines.
Cllr. Tina MacVeigh PBP / Twitter
Cllr. Tina MacVeigh PBP / Twitter / Twitter
The workers are calling for the parent company to pay the collectively agreed union negotiated redundancy package to all Debenhams workers.
Currently, many workers will only receive statutory redundancy.
“These workers, like all workers, deserve respect, dignity and to have their collective agreement with their company adhered to,” Mandate general secretary John Douglas said.
Douglas said the workers have done a “tremendous job in making the public aware of their struggle for justice which has garnered incredible national and international support”.
He has also called on Minister for Employment Affairs Regina Doherty to intervene in the liquidation process in an effort to save jobs if possible.
The Covid-19 pandemic has already had a severe impact on the Irish economy. According to the Central Statistics Office, there are now 602,107 people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment while 425,204 people are benefiting from the government’s Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.
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Sure are the non nationals not keeping us afloat… Leo says so….
@Willy Mc Caul: aren’t you a non national too?
@Willy Mc Caul: they do as the business interests intend for them, suppress wages.
It’s ok. Everything’s ok lads, the politicians gave themselves another pay rise yesterday. As long as they’re ok….. well that’s all that matters!
Low Wage Trap!
Those on €35,000 p.a have to pay Max Tax of 41%, to pay for social housing but have no access to homes for themselves. Ireland a daft place to live .. try to live!.
@Neuville-Kepler62F: exactly. So many people stuck in the middle carrying the weight
@Aisling: the middle should not be putting up with this, FFG laughing that they do
@Neuville-Kepler62F: you realise you pay 20% on the first €32,800 of that and the higher rate only applies to rates over that and that low wages earners on less than €32,800 also pay 20% right?
@Jensen Bhroin: correct. The MaxTax threshold in the UK is €50,000.
Ireland is a daft place to live …. be trapped in!
@ Aisling , whilst the super rich , bankers and corrupt politicians sit back and reap the rewards of divide and conquer politics!
CSO figures, what used to be an impartial source of statistics is now part of Leo’s spin machine and must be taken with a huge grain of salt.
It’s not only non nationals that are being screws, our a large proportion of our army and newly qualified nurses are on minimum wage already not to mention those poor people on internships.
internships work for people that show interest amd initiative my dad ,my sister and a friend all got high paid professional jobs out of interning for 6months. nurses get at least 8k more than minimum wage starting off and most of the hospital staff are non nationals anyway. our army spend most of their time scratching their behinds , I don’t even see the need for us to have a full time army, just have the FCA do the work when the floods and snow come every few years. I think we should invest in our navy more so than the army! Rent averages 1200 a month in Ireland , similar figures to Australia and Canada where the minimum wage is nearly 20 and 16 an hour respectively. Do the maths , people are being screwed left right and centre from minimum wage earners to middle income earners.
@Charles Coughlan: If you can’t grasp basic spelling you should be happy with the min wage which is quite good compared to other Nations. Besides, Nurses and the army don’t pay real tax and so should except a lower wage or they will bankrupt us again.
Never forget all the people who lost their jobs during the rescission whilst the public servants got an All Ireland show down at Croke Park. Bank debt will make us a profit, it was the Public Servants that bankrupt our country.
@alan: And it will bankrupt us again when the next crises occurs, meanwhile they will milk it as long as possible heaping more debt on us all…….we will have zero scope to borrow for the horrific pay and pensions of these people in the future.
Times are good again but its rare that the money ends up in the average joe’s pocket
Not only that but what IT companies are doing in Ireland is replacing skilled sales people with graduates or interns .. no pension contributions, no long term commitments, lower salaries and making those experienced staff redundant ..
@HybridDsl: unfortunately it is a global market place, especially in the IT world. If we persist with high wages etc it will all go the way of Dell and the jobs will move elsewhere
Ah sure ‘people want to work part time. it suits their lifestyle’. NO IT DOESN’T.
Non irish will build their own business because they usually are not low level educated and want the same chance than everybody.
@Dominic Leleu: you mention education but you need to improve your English and language skills first.
@The Dons: cheap shot.i would love to hear and read your second language.
@The Dons: Pathetic anonymous troll.
@John: My building site was raided by revenue last week
large site
over 50% off staff Easturopens
on. bougie safe employed
not paying right tax
its all over the construction business
revenue know all about it
@John: your comment is just the one a typical basic troll. Your English is not better than mine and you know nothing about my skill. You are just a basic punk.
@Dominic Leleu: I meant skills. And by the way, you are also very brave to comment like this with a pseudonym.
@Flippermac: Yes if there wasn’t 50% eastern Europeans on that site who would be on it ? It wouldn’t be the fella screaming about the foreigners taking his job because he is too busy in Paddy Power\pub spending your money and laughing at you working.
@Dominic Leleu: sorry but its the truth
I appoliguse it the truth hurts
is it not poland and hungry blocking
migrants into there country’s
are the EU not putting sactions on then
fake news
yes
@Philip Morgan: tipical left wing awsnser
@Flippermac: I apologise : my comments were for The Dons. … not you. I will double check next time before to send.
@Dominic Leleu: no problem buddy
@Flippermac: nobody is blocking migrants
@Dominic Leleu: If you read it properly, I was defending you.kind of wished I didn’t now.
@Dominic Leleu: you’ve a fake account. The amount of fake comments from fake accounts on here today is astounding.
@artur filip: I can share a link
but if you Google
Why Poland is not taking in refuges
its the first article from EU website
I wish I could sent you a link
@Flippermac: how come your twitter account doesn’t exist??
@The Dons: In that case you don’t mind me mentioning that your reply should have commenced with a capital Y :-)
@Flippermac: Poland has been supporting the victims of the Syrian war ever since its outbreak. In 2016 the amount of funds directed by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in response to the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East has risen nearly fourfold. The total amount of assistance amounted to PLN 47 million, topped up by the contribution the EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey (created following the 2015 European Union and Turkey summit, where the EU member states agreed to transfer additional funds for humanitarian aid to refugees located in Turkey and to the communities receiving them) amounting to nearly PLN 73.2 million. In 2017, humanitarian aid for the Middle East reached the level of PLN 44.2 million.
@Charles Coughlan: my point is the amount of fake comments from fake accounts from people who don’t even live in Ireland.
@Paul Furey: sorry but you’ve missed my point completely.
@The Dons: you are the fake one! And a damn troll.
I use my real name not a nickname from a bad mafia tv show.
Go back to school and learn something.
@John: sorry john. I was after The Dons.
But they’re included in the “near full employment” figures.
@Kem Trayle: you’re another faker!
Speak with your votes come the elections time for FG FF to go
But Leo Varadker told us that immigrants coming to Ireland are Doctors and work for Google that theirs no immigrants in SOCIAL HOUSING or on WELFARE!!! LEO THE LIAR
And soldiers…
He’s happy enough to have the Defence Forces on minimum wage.
And soldiers
have your say