Former Debenhams employees say they will continue to strike, as the company’s joint liquidator KPMG, seeks an injunction in the High Court, to clamp down on their protest actions.

Today, the Debenhams strikers are marking six months on the picket line. However, the joint-liquidators, KPMG, have taken to court seeking an injunction to thwart what are described as illegal actions, which have been taken by the former retail workers.

The company is also seeking injunctions against workers who prevent them from moving ‘valuable stock’ from Irish-based, Debenhams stores.

An injunction is a stringent legal measure that prevents those who are subjected to one from carrying out specific actions. It is not uncommon for companies to seek an injunction against dissatisfied workers, to stop them from entering their premises, interfering with their affairs or pursuing industrial action.

UNFAIR DISMISSAL OF WORKERS

Speaking to Hot Press, Michelle Gavin, a former Debenhams employee in Waterford city, said she was ‘disappointed’ to hear about KPMG’s legal action against the workers.

“We’re not shocked, but disappointed,” she said.

Gavin said she was more disillusioned with the Government, as the workers have always had little faith in their former employer’s appointed joint liquidator.

“This Government has let us down horrendously,” Gavin said. “Micheál Martin said at the Dáil that KPMG should negotiate with the workers, but he’s just giving us lip service.

“The Government could bring an end to this.”

Gavin said that the workers will maintain their lawful right to strike and to take industrial action, even in the face of what she characterised as ‘legal intimidation’.

Amy Hourigan, a Debenhams worker in Tralee, Co Kerry, also told Hot Press that workers were anticipating a legal action by KPMG.

“It was something that we had all anticipated coming. But we have been grossly let down by the leaders of this country,” Hourigan said.
She insisted that the Government had sufficient time to enshrine employee protections in company legislation, yet it failed to do so.

Debenhams workers have been asking for the prompt implementation of the recommendations of the Duffy-Cahill report. Drafted in 2016, at the request of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the report recommends the adoption of binding measures to ensure redundancy payments are made to workers, in the event of insolvency.

The report followed the liquidation of the famous Dublin department store Clery's and the simultaneous unfair dismissal of its workers.

ATTEMPTS TO REMOVE STOCK

KPMG's recent legal action for an injunction follows the company's attempt last week at moving stock from several stores in Ireland, including those in Waterford, Tralee and Cork.

In Waterford, where workers occupied a shuttered city square Debenhams store for five days, Gavin said a truck held up traffic and then left without any stock – and without the driver speaking with strikers.

"The driver pulled up, he didn't engage with us or anything, he was holding up traffic, so, the cars behind him started beeping, he went and came around the second time, and then left," Gavin said.

“He didn’t even pull down his window.”

In Tralee, where a picket line is in place 24 hours a day and seven days a week, Hourigan claimed that the truck driver was planning to enter the store on the pretext of delivering goods for Tesco.

"Three ladies at the picket line asked [the driver] for his paperwork, and he didn't have any. He initially kept saying he was delivering for Tesco, then eight or nine people came down to help," she said.

Hourigan said later that when the Tesco delivery pulled up, they concluded that the other driver was from KPMG. He subsequently left, driving in a way that the workers did not like.

"We're not here to impede any other businesses," Hourigan added. "We're not a nuisance. We're here fighting for our redundancies."

As joint-liquidator, KPMG has been trying to move Debenhams' stock from abandoned stores in Ireland for the past number of months, but facing resistance from both former staff and supporters of their industrial action.

The British retailer unceremoniously and abruptly closed all its eleven stores in the Republic in April, citing an inability to deal with the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Even long-term Debenhams staffers were notified about the company’s decision through an impersonal email sent before a Bank Holiday weekend.
There was no comment on the injunction bid from joint liquidators, KPMG.