Clerys’ new owners say they may employ former staff

Ronald Quinlan THE new owners of Clerys have held out the prospect of employing “some” of the former department store’s employees if its plans for the redevelopment of its historic O’Connell Street premises are approved by Dublin City Council.

The tentative commitment is contained in a report prepared on behalf of Deirdre Foley’s OCS Properties by DKM Economic Consultants, in which the potential economic benefits of ‘Project D1’ are assessed. The report was submitted to council planners as part of OCS’s overall application to develop offices, retail space and a boutique hotel within the Clerys building.

Clearly mindful of the public opprobrium provoked by the shock closure of the store and the resultant loss of 430 jobs of its direct and indirect employees, the report says that the store’s redevelopment would create a total of 1,450 FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) jobs, with 330 of these employed in its retail offering alone.

“This sizeable expansion in terms of employment opportunities could benefit some of the staff previously engaged at the Clerys department store, while also providing new retail opportunities for other elements of the Dublin labour force,” the report adds.

Calls for OCS Properties to provide employment for former Clerys workers were included in a number of the submissions made to Dublin City Council on its planning application.

The deadline for observations on the plan closed last Friday.

Referring to the obligations imposed on property owners under the scheme, one member of the public wrote to council planners to say that OCS Properties should only be granted planning permission if its application includes a ‘social clause’ that provides for “local employment, protection of workers’ wages and jobs for former Clerys workers”.

And while Green Party councillor Ciaran Cuffe says in his submission that the proposal’s inclusion of a new hotel is “welcome”, he too refers to the plight of the former Clerys workers.

Cuffe states that OCS Properties should “ensure that all workers are assured fair working conditions in the proposed development given the historic significance of union leader Jim Larkin’s speech from the window of Clerys 103 years ago, and the more recent moral failure of the owners to deliver on justice for the Clerys workers”.