Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this very important issue. This is an incredibly difficult time for the staff of Clerys who gave so much to the company and who have been treated appallingly. I hope the business owners involved in these transactions have some sense of business ethics, propriety and fair play, particularly for the workers, the employees of the concessionaires, the concessionaires themselves and the creditors of the company. At first glance, there are many questions to be answered here.

Prior to the termination of employment, there is an entitlement to minimum notice under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts. This basic entitlement was not afforded to the Clerys workers. I consider it imperative that workers are treated properly at all times and that they and their representatives are consulted on matters affecting their employment. It is totally unsatisfactory, inappropriate and unacceptable that entities involved in this transaction did not respect this concept. My Department and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation will examine whether all aspects of the relevant legislation have been complied with, whether that legislation needs to be strengthened and if so how.

In the first instance, my thoughts are with the workers. I met with several workers this morning at a briefing session hosted by my Department to tell them of the welfare and employment supports we can provide. At briefings of this type, officials from the Department advise the employees who have lost their jobs on the Intreo process, jobseeker's payments, and redundancy and insolvency entitlements. They also provide information on other schemes, including rent supplement to which they may wish to have recourse. Information is also given on options and assistance available relating to work, and on the short-term enterprise allowance, as well as training and education options.

The Department will ensure that jobseeker's claims will not be delayed pending resolving individual issues on any leave accrued but not yet taken. This means that jobseeker's claims can be paid quickly, subject to usual criteria, and reconciled as required at a future date. The Department is informing its network of local offices in the greater Dublin area of these developments to ensure that claims from affected workers are processed in a speedy and sensitive manner.

I express my gratitude to SIPTU and Mandate for their excellent support in this regard. Normally the services of the Department would be made available on the company's premises, as people will recall with the closure of Mount Carmel Hospital. In this case, as we saw in the pictures, the locks were put on the doors. I am thankful to SIPTU for making its premises available to us near the workers' place of employment and also facilitating the liquidators to be there this morning. A significant number of the workers were there today. This engagement will provide information to all workers, including those employed by concession holders.

The primary focus of my Department at this time is to ensure the efficient and prompt taking of claims for jobseeker's benefit to ensure that the workers get their entitlements at the earliest possible opportunity. In addition to the range of information and advice being provided by the Department of Social Protection, officials from the National Employment Rights Authority and representatives of the liquidators, KPMG, attended to provide information to the affected workers.

A representative of the liquidator has verbally advised the Department of Social Protection that all staff have been made redundant and that P45s will issue this week. I understand it is possible that one or two staff from the payroll area in Clerys may be retained temporarily to assist with the liquidation. The liquidator will seek, on behalf of workers, payment from the insolvency payments scheme in respect of unpaid wages, accrued but untaken leave, and payment in lieu of statutory notice and statutory redundancy under the redundancy payments scheme. It is intended that individual meetings will be held between the liquidator and the workers affected to determine, on an individual basis, the extent of liabilities. The Department will deal promptly with individual applications submitted in respect of the insolvency payments scheme by the liquidator.

I hope that is helpful, particularly to the workers involved, to whom I explained much of this in person this morning. They were accompanied by various union officials and shop stewards who had been working in Clerys. I met people who had more than 40 years' service and whose life was wrapped up in the store. As somebody who is a lifelong customer of the store, as are members of my family, like many Dubliners, I am personally knowledgeable of the kind of service this shop has given. We will seek to ensure workers obtain all their entitlements as quickly as possible.

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