Debenhams staff: We’ve been thrown under a bus

Geraldine O’Regan – who had worked at Debenhams for 13 years and was, until weeks ago, a personal shopper in the store – said the workers she and her colleagues were still in a state of shock.

“On April 6 we got a voice message from management telling us that Debenhams in the UK was going into administration to protect jobs during the COVID-19 break. We were told this was to help us and to protect us and that our jobs were safe,” said Geraldine.

“48 hours later we all got an email saying the company had gone into liquidation and our jobs were gone,” she said.

“We were all taken aback and gobsmacked. Two weeks later we still are,” Geraldine said.

Since they received the awful news about their jobs Geraldine said she and her colleagues have heard “nothing” from the company or its liquidators about what they can expect to get in a redundancy package or when they are might receive them.

Questions to the Government and to Bank of Ireland – which is a co-owner of the chain – have also gone unanswered.

“We’ve been left completely in the dark and it could be June before we hear anything. We just feel like we’ve been thrown under a bus,” Geraldine told The Kerryman.

“With the COVID-19 crisis this is going under the radar. 2,000 people have lost their jobs this can’t be swept under the carpet,” she added.

The staff and their union Mandate are also highly critical of Bank or Ireland’s role in the situation and are demanding to know why the bank – which is 14 per cent State owned – didn’t alert Government to the looming job losses.

Mandate General Secretary, John Douglas raised serious questions about the liquidation process and Bank of Ireland’s role in the chain’s closure.

“This doesn’t appear to be a normal ‘compulsory’ liquidation. If, as we suspect, it has been entered into freely by the Directors of the company, there should have been discussions with their workers who built this company and have given them loyal service for decades,” said Mr Douglas.

“Bank of Ireland is a part owner of the business, along with Barclays, Silver Point Capital and GoldenTree. It beggers belief that an Irish bank, bailed out by the Irish taxpayer, would deliberately and cynically place a company into liquidation without any negotiations with workers and costing up to 2,000 jobs,” he added.

Staff member Andy Browne who is Mandate’ representative at Debenhams Tralee said the sudden closure had come as a shock to everyone at the store.

“We all knew the company wasn’t going great but any time we asked we were told things were going grand and that the Tralee store was going very well,” he said.

“In fairness the union are working tirelessly to help us and they are telling us everything they can but information from the company is practically non existent,” Mr Browne said

“As for the bank the union wrote to them and they didn’t even write back. Who bailed them out when they were in trouble?” he added.

“We’re being forgotten and we need help.”

THEY ASSURED US THAT OUR JOBS WERE SAFE AND 48 HOURS LATER WE WERE TOLD THAT THEY WERE GONE.