Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I raise the issue of the rights and entitlements of the La Senza workers. I ask the Minister about the treatment of the workers and the way the issue has been dealt with by their employers. The employees got virtually no notice that they are about to be made unemployed. Some people were phoned and told not to turn up for work the next morning. The Liffey Valley workers turned up for work on Monday and were told to help the removal men who were there to pack up the store's contents. They were not given any written notice that they were being made redundant. There was no attempt to engage them, as there should have been under the terms of the redundancy. An issue arises out of that. People have no documentation and they have not been paid their wages for the month of January, including overtime and Sunday payments, but they are not able to sign on and get social protection.

How can a company get away with this? It knew this was coming down the line. It might not have told its employees, but there were reports of the company going into administration at the end of December on the BBC. The company gave the workers the impression that they would be told what was happening, that they would be given notice and so on. It got them to come in and work long hours. The workers came in and worked in good faith, but they got no pay for that work. As a result, the company has made huge profits over the past month. It has taken that money out of the country, while stating that it will not pay redundancy for the workers and that the State will have to pick up the tab. What is being done about that?

The parent company, Lion Capital, is hugely profitable and has large amounts of money at its disposal. Other stores in the La Senza chain have been sold off and will continue to trade, so this should be examined.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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On Monday, 114 workers in the La Senza lingerie chain were informed by either e-mail or phone call in curt notifications that their jobs were gone. They were not given information about the work they did over Christmas. There were no P45s given out, so they are unable to sign on. It is outrageous and shameful treatment of these mostly young women workers, single mums, people with mortgages and students who have been left high and dry by the company, La Senza, and by the administrators, KPMG, who must have known this was coming and allowed these workers to continue to work over Christmas in good faith believing they would be treated properly and receive proper notification of any change in their position.

They cannot sign on and they do not know about redundancy. If it must be paid by the State it could be a year before they receive it and they have no idea when they might be paid the moneys they are owed for Christmas. It is bad enough to treat workers like this at any time, but to do it just after Christmas is absolutely horrendous. Yesterday, some of the workers at the occupation were in tears telling me about their plight.

We do not just want a condemnation of La Senza, although it is roundly deserved. We want the Government to use its influence and contact KPMG to demand it immediately appoint an administrator and that the workers' wages are immediately paid. The Minister should move to urgently fast-track social welfare applications so the State provides assistance to these workers and they can sign on.

This speaks to a bigger problem. La Senza is just the latest victim of the retail collapse in the country and the latest of the tens of thousands of victims of the austerity which is crippling the economy. At the very least, if the Government is to continue with austerity it should put in place legislation or some type of insurance fund to protect workers who are left high and dry by unscrupulous employers.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome some of the La Senza workers who are in the Visitors' Gallery. My colleague, Mr. Eoin Ó Broin, and I were at the Liffey Valley store this morning. There is much support from local people. People are shocked by what has happened. Is it not right that an employee who has worked for a company for nine and a half years is told on a Monday morning by seven heavies that her job is gone with no communication, phone call or e-mail? She still has not been officially told whether her job is gone, but the stores are closed.

This company is making fools not only of the staff but of Irish taxpayers and of the legislation on workers' rights. Will we allow the company to get away with this? This is the real question people want to ask. Is there any way to stop this? Other people have spoken about the fact that the workers have no proof they have lost their jobs and this is a difficulty in itself. The only way the workers can prove it is that the trade union in which some of them are involved can provide a letter of comfort to the Department of Social Protection. It highlights the difficulties in this regard and the importance of being members of a trade union.

In a number of cases people have taken slices of companies and the only people left without their payments are the workers. There is something wrong with the legislation if it allows this to happen. A portion of the company has already been sold off and €6.5 million in profits was sent to Britain after December. All of the workers in the Visitors' Gallery worked overtime and have not been paid. When will they be paid? We can go through tribunals but how long will this take with a waiting list of 35,000 people? It could be two years before these people are paid. Something is wrong and we need to fix it.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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I also welcome the workers and their trade union representatives. I commend them for standing their ground. A very important message needs to go from this Chamber to unscrupulous employers - we previously heard about the situation in Vita Cortex in Cork - that there is no free-for-all and that things being tough and being in recession are not a green light for every dodger and chancer to trample all over the rights of workers.

There are probably not sufficient words to describe the contempt with which the employers have held the staff of La Senza. Their behaviour has been utterly despicable with wages not being paid and overtime and bonuses being owed. In many cases, they did not even have the simple courtesy to phone people to tell them their jobs were gone.

The workers have taken their stand and they are quite correct to do so. They want to know whether they have our support. For our part in Sinn Féin they absolutely do. The question is whether they have the support of the Government. What does the State propose to do to vindicate the rights of this group of workers? If we do not take a stand in this case and in respect of Vita Cortex we can fairly predict an onslaught on workers in the retail sector and other sectors the like of which has never been seen. This is not acceptable and we need to state this loudly and clearly I ask the Minister of State to tell us what the Government proposes to do and to articulate in the clearest terms his absolute support for the workers and their action.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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I welcome the representatives of the La Senza workers to the Visitors' Gallery and I am in solidarity with the Vita Cortex workers suffering from similar high-handed disgusting treatment. It is breathtaking in its arrogance and disrespect towards the up to 120 mainly female workers in the La Senza lingerie stores in Dublin and Cork that the company waited until the workers had left work on Monday evening to inform them by random phone calls - through the agency of KPMG doing the dirty work for the company - that they need not come in on Tuesday morning. It is beneath contempt that ordinary workers were told the company did not have the phone numbers of their colleagues and were asked to phone and tell them, including a manageress who worked loyally for the company for eight or nine years. It is absolutely incredible.

The workers are victims of the private equity vulture company, Lion Capital, which in the most callous way planned to walk away from its workforce to maximise its profit, handing it over to another company which will be equally ruthless, and treating these workers in the most disgusting fashion. This is capitalism red in tooth and claw and must be challenged.

Fine Gael and Labour Party Deputies come here and champion workers. They are the people who make and stand over the laws. For a change, let us have emergency laws to allow workers to receive their rights and to stop these gangsters behaving in this gangster-like fashion.

I call on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and its leaders to come out of hiding and meet fire with fire. They should mobilise the power of working people in the country to stand together with the Vita Cortex and La Senza workers. Workers standing together will show the power they have, forcing the Government to act and these companies to pay what they should.

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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The company made a profit of €100 million last year.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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No one political entity in the House has a monopoly on the rights of workers. I spoke with regard to the Vita Cortex case, in which there is a serious breach of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance, and the same applies in respect of this case. There is no question but that the rights of workers have not been vindicated and have been trampled upon. Under legislation from 1977 to 2007 governing the protection of employees, a number of provisions deal with an information and consultation process that must be entered into prior to any redundancies being implemented and the provision of information to employees and to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. In this case, the Minister has not received any statutory notice of such redundancies. That is a serious breach in the first instance. There is a need for my Department to engage with Mr. Meegan and others of Mandate who, it is reported met KPMG today. I would like to get an assessment of what transpired at that meeting because the points raised on this and the previous Topical Issue matter go to the heart of industrial relations policy and vindicating the rights of workers. As a Government, we must ensure there are no precedents set and the legislation is adhered to by corporate entities, individuals and citizens. There is no question that we support the rights of workers as set down in legislation and will seek to do so.

By way of being helpful, I express my willingness to meet workers representatives on this issue in order that we can provide some degree of assistance where possible. I am keeping my statement brief because I realise Members will wish to make further submissions.

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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I welcome the points the Minister of State has made. In my previous submission I said that some of the La Senza stores were sold to a company, Alshaya, under a prepack deal in respect of administration whereby it was allowed to buy up the assets and the debts are written off. Given that some companies are opportunist, it is important to ensure they are not allowed to speculate when it comes to people's jobs and rights. If this is a new phenomenon, it needs to be nipped in the bud. I join others in commending the workers on taking a stand because these are important issues for all workers.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is a welcome step forward that the Minister of State has indicated his concern for the workers' plight and is willing to meet them, but what the workers want to hear is concrete commitments to deal with their situation. Will the Minister of State contact KPMG and tell it to pay the workers the moneys, salaries and bonuses owed? Will the Minister for Social Protection fast-track their social welfare applications and ensure they have immediate financial assistance given that they have not been paid their wages? Will the Government introduce emergency legislation to ensure employers cannot do this and that an insurance fund is set up for workers who are left high and dry by employers? What the workers want is concrete action, not just words of concern.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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There is a need for stronger legislation in this area. I do not know if anything is being done at EU level on this issue given that the company is spread across a number of frontiers. The issue is what support can be provided for the workers. If workers are summarily dismissed without wages or redundancy, something is wrong. It means there is a need to strengthen the legislation in this area.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State has added another piece to the puzzle, that is, that the employers have thumbed their nose at the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton. Clearly, they have a disregard not only for the workforce but the law of the land. What is required is not simply sympathetic words. While I acknowledge the Minister of State's sincerity in that regard, the workers need to know he will be proactive by getting in touch with KPMG or anyone else as required and that the will pursue this matter vigorously. Today it is the La Senza workers; tomorrow it could be any other group of workers. The law has been broken. Will the Government intervene in a proactive manner to ensure the law is respected and the rights of the workers are vindicated?

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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There are many precedents in this area. Several years ago, Thomas Cook workers were in the same situation and left in the same disgusting and disgraceful fashion. When they correctly occupied the premises, the Garda was sent in with battering rams to break down the doors. The Thomas Cook workers were paraded in front of their lordships at the High Court and threatened with Mountjoy jail if they persisted to fight for their rights. I am afraid the law, on balance, is on the side of the bosses, employers and the unscrupulous vulture capital companies. The workers in the La Senza case are chasing their statutory entitlements from the taxpayer while Lion Capital walks off with massive profits. This is not a matter for dreaming about but in which action needs to be taken now. We want to know what the Minister of State will do today and tomorrow.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I acknowledge the points made by the Deputies and I am not one to pay lip service to issues such as this. With respect, I have indicated that I want to meet the workers' representatives on this issue. I am concerned, as Deputy McDonald has pointed out, that there is a perceived breach of legislation. There is a perceived breach of legislation in respect of sections 9 and 10 of the Protection of Employment Act 1977 and Regulation 6 of the European Communities (Protection of Employment) Regulations whereby employees, whose employer has not complied with sections 9 and 10 of the Protection of Employment Act 1977, may refer complaints to a rights commissioner. There are issues around the mandatory notice to employers. Please allow me that mode of communication and let us see how we can proceed.