Debenhams workers to fight again?

The goalposts have been “moved by yards” in the agreement that saw former Debenhams staff walk away from their picket lines last May.

That’s according to former Debenham’s shop steward Valerie Conlon who told the Cork Independent she and her former colleagues feel the terms reached in May between the workers and the Government have been changed considerably since.

In May, a €3 million training and upskilling fund was put on the table which workers reluctantly accepted after a vote, ending more than 400 days of picketing for fair redundancy pay. Ms Conlon said employees from the former Cork stores had their first meeting with further education agency Solas on 9 December and that they are very disappointed with what they heard.

“They’re not going to make it very easy for us,” she said.

Ms Conlon said if a course requires a laptop or computer, the course tutor must write a letter to those taking part in the course. Course participants must then send that letter to Solas. There’s also a limit on how much they can spend on equipment and supplies.

She also said courses will be paid for by term rather than for the full year, and that the fund cannot be used to start a business.

According to Ms Conlon, all of these terms have changed since the first meeting with Solas in December which ultimately led to the vote which ended the protest.

She said: “Each store has had their meeting now and after each meeting, they have been very, very disappointed by it.”

Ms Conlon said that some people are even saying they’re just going to walk away from the deal.

“I was talking to one of the girls last night and we were saying, are we going to have to start all over again? Obviously not strike, but to get onto the Dáil and Micheál Martin again and start that process all over again. That’s very tiring. I’m working full time, most people are working now at this stage,” said Ms Conlon.

She continued: “It looks like the Government is giving us another slap in the face really in the way they promised us that this was going to work. I know people are very upset but I don’t know if they want to start all over again. I don’t know if they have the fight left in them for this. I can see them walking away from it.”

When former Debenham’s workers settled for the €3m training and upskilling fund in May last year, they did so in the hope their actions would bring about a change in legislation regarding redundancy in Ireland.

Ms Conlon said she is still keeping an eye on the progress of any legislative change and she understands the Government is “looking into it” in 2022.

“Whether it’s what we want, I don’t know, but hopefully it will be a step closer to something better for employees. One thing we said from the beginning, whatever about the €3m fund, that we certainly weren’t going to walk away and not have something done for the employees of Ireland and to make sure that it never happened to anybody else again,” Ms Conlon concluded.