A challenge over a raid on the Dublin offices of investment company D2 Private by inspectors investigating the redundancies of workers at Clerys department store in Dublin is due before the High Court next week.
D2 Private Ltd (DPL) and its director and owner Deidre Foley brought proceedings after inspectors appointed by the Workplace Relations Commission and gardai entered the firm’s offices at Harcourt Terrace in May.
DPL later got permission from the High Court to challenge the inspectors’ right to enter their premises and take certain documents and material. That hearing is listed to open on July 7th.
The inspectors were appointed by the WRC after Clerys closed in controversial circumstances in June 2015, shortly after its sale by the Gordon Brothers Group to Natrium Ltd.
Natrium is a joint venture comprising DPL and Cheyne Capital Management in the UK.
Lost jobs
About 460 people either directly employed by Clerys or by various concession holders in the store lost their jobs.
The DPL challenge concerns the inspectors’ reliance on certain provisions of the 1977 Protection of Employment Act and the 2015 Workplace Relations Act to enter premises and take documents.
In opposing the proceedings, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, which has responsibility for the WRC, says the investigation was being conducted to see if a criminal prosecution should be brought arising out of the workers’ collective redundancy.
The inspectors took various material and documents including correspondence between the company and various parties, including the liquidators and directors of the company that had operated Clerys, OCS Operations, before Natrium acquired the Store.
Dispute
Ms Foley and DPL dispute the inspectors had power to enter onto their premises or lawfully take the computer or certain other materials sought. They say the inspectors can only take documents and materials relevant to the investigation.
At the High Court on Thursday, lawyers for the Minister objected to an application by Natrium Ltd, a notice party, to seek orders similar to those sought by D2 and Ms Foley.
Michael McDowell SC, with Breffni Gordon BL, for the Minister, said allowing Natrium bring a challenge while D2’s case was being heard would be like asking the Minister to fight a battle “on two fronts”.
Lawyers for Natrium, whose offices were also subjected to a request for documents by the inspectors, argued some of the materials sought are privileged and confidential and said it too wanted to challenge the inspectors’ powers.
Mr Justice Seamus Noonan refused Natrium’s application.
