29 Ex-Staff Protest Outside Clearys

29 Ex-Staff Protest Outside Clearys, a photo by infomatique on Flickr.

Guineys & Co was closed in September after its sister store Clerys was placed in receivership. Although a private equity firm bought Clerys a few hours later, Guineys & Co was not included in the deal and was placed into liquidation.

I had a chat with these protesters today but as I had assumed that they were with Clerys rather than Guineys I did not ask if they still had their jobs. When I got home I checked online and it would appear that there were 29 protesters (10 people who worked in Guineys and a further 19 people who worked at Clerys outlets in Naas, Blanchardstown and Leopardstown) and all of them had lost their jobs and will receive only statutory statutory redundancy payments even though most of them were with the company more than 30 years.

On of the protesters told me that at one stage their employer paid their pension contributions but that this had been changed years ago and that they (the employees) were required to contribute towards their pensions. Reports in the media indicated that the new owners have stated that they’re not accepting liability for pensions for the 29 employees and therefore it was concluded they they would lose their pensions. However the employees do not yet know the status of their pensions so it is possible that they may receive a reduced pension.