Debenhams workers in Waterford are to hold a silent protest outside City Hall this morning.
Around 90 people were employed by Debenhams in Waterford however, they were told last month that the Irish stores would not be reopening.
They're calling for political parties to support state intervention to save their jobs.
The Waterford workers are meeting at City Hall at 11.15 where they hope to hand letters to TD's Mary Butler and Marc Ó Cathasaigh.
Nationally, up to 2,000 people lost their jobs last Thursday when the company was formally liquidated.
One group of workers will bring their case to the Dáil at 11.30am, while others will hold local actions in constituencies, including handing letters in to TD offices or picketing local branches of Bank of Ireland, which part-owns Debenhams.
All actions will adhere to social distancing guidelines.
The workers want to meet party leaders and TDs who may be in government to discuss some of the following measures they feel could be looked at to invest to save jobs in Debenhams:
- The government announced a €6.5 billion fund for businesses over the weekend. Debenhams is a major workforce and merits investment.
- The EU has established a €100 billion fund called SURE to prevent redundancies (Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency). The Irish government could apply for this or other EU funding to save 2,000 jobs.
- The Apple taxes and other unclaimed taxes should now be used to invest in jobs.
- Rent reductions would immediately make a number of stores viable and could be strongly negotiated if the government took over Debenhams. These huge premises will lie vacant after Covid19 if this doesn't happen and Debenhams closes down.
- One of the debts Debenhams has is €3.8m owed to Revenue. Warehousing of taxes owed is being proposed by the government and could apply here.
- The alternative is a huge welfare bill as 2,000 workers will go on the dole.
The workers are calling on government to act urgently before the consultation period with the liduidator ends on May 17th.
