STAFF at one of Limerick’s best known convenience stores staged a sit-in protest this Wednesday after they were left without pay following the closure of the business earlier in the week.
Thirty workers are demonstrating at Ivan’s on the Ennis Road in Caherdavin to secure money owed to them, including holiday and redundancy pay.
Staff members told the Limerick Post that pay cheques issued last week had bounced and that their protest would continue until they receive their full entitlements including wages, P45s and a letter from their former employer to process social welfare payments.
Mary Sheehan who has worked at Ivan’s for the past nine years said the latest development was a “big blow” for all staff members.
“We got a text on Sunday afternoon to be at the store at 8 pm for a meeting. We then got five minutes notice that the store was closing. This is just not acceptable,” said the 61-year-old who worked on the Deli counter.
“The management knew they were closing weeks ago and they should have told us long before now. They allowed us take orders for cakes at the weekend knowing we were going to be closed. I feel terrible for all the customers who ordered cakes,” the Kileely woman remarked.
“I have worked since I was 12-years-old and I had to go to the dole office this week for the first time in my life. I didn’t know where to go and didn’t have the proper forms or anything. I was in tears before I got to the counter.
“We will not be moved from here until we get our wages and everything else we are owed. I feel so mad,” she said.
When approached by press outside the store on Wednesday, one member of management said “I don’t need the opportunity to comment on anything”.
Secretary of the Trades Council, Frank McDonald, who was at the store to support the action, said he believes the 30 staff members are “completely justified” in their protest and that management are “totally ignoring employment legislation”.
A letter issued to staff from Cappagrennan Limited, trading as Ivan’s, stated that the directors are currently considering the options available to the company.
“In the event that any or all of the employees are made redundant, we have been advised that those employees will receive their full salary entitlements to include any/all arrears of pay and full statutory redundancy”, the letter added.
