Brexit has had a major impact on the Irish branches of several UK headquartered retailers as adjustments continue to be made in domestic markets and international markets.
SIPTU Services Divisional Organiser, Adrian Kane, said: “With the unstable global political situation, where Governments and countries are increasingly making rash and self-defending decisions being a member of the Union has never been more vital.
“Brexit has done economic damage, most severely to the UK. Retail companies have been some of the worst affected and this has had negative results in terms of job losses in Ireland. However, where workers were members of SIPTU, the Union has been able to get the best deal for them in very difficult situations. Workers should always remember you’re better in the Union!”
ARGOS/DHL
ARGOS decided to completely withdraw from the Irish market to concentrate solely on their UK business. SIPTU represented the twenty-eight DHL drivers, who were tasked with supplying the stores with goods and delivering orders to people’s homes.
A redundancy deal was successfully negotiated with DHL for this Union’s members which consisted of 4.75 weeks per year of service uncapped with payment in lieu of notice to all staff.
ICELAND
The frozen food retail group announced that it was to sell all its 26 stores in Ireland to concentrate on its UK business. The company that bought the business, Metron Stores, entered examinership not long after the sale as it could no longer meet the debts that it had acquired of €38 million.
Unexpectedly, the company tried to close the shops and not pay the employees what they were owed. In Waterford SIPTU members and their trade union official staged a sit in and remained in the shop for a number of days.
SIPTU was not able to negotiate an agreement for members working in the Clonmel and Waterford branches that the examiner would fast-track their statutory redundancy payments and secure all outstanding monies owed to them.
The Body Shop
In early 2024, the UK based Body Shop went into administration and announced that it was closing half of its stores in the UK, it initially stated that due to online sales and having a base in Europe that Ireland would not be affected.
SIPTU representatives tried to make contact with the management but found it very difficult as they were based in the UK. When contact was established, it was confirmed that all outstanding monies owed would be paid to employees and there was no intention to close the shops.
A few days later the Body Shop suddenly announced it was closing all its Irish stores resulting in around 40 job losses. The company initially refused to engage with the statutory collective redundancy process, as it was headquartered outside of the EU. However, it then wrote to the government implementing the 30-day consultation period, but refused to enter the process that it had initiated.
This meant SIPTU members could not sign on or apply for other work as this would forfeit their right to statutory redundancy.
In a press release the SIPTU activist and Body Shop worker, Lisa Dunne, said: “It is terrible that we have lost our jobs that we loved. However, for myself and my colleagues to be left in a situation where we were neither employed nor legally unemployed is completely unacceptable.”
SIPTU had the matter raised in the Dáil by Labour Party TDs. The Government under pressure agreed that these employees could receive redundancy and apply for work during the notice period.