WORKERS STAGING a sit-in at the La Senza lingerie chain in Dublin’s Liffey Valley centre have vowed to continue their protest until they get assurances they will be paid wages and overtime owed to them.
A total of 114 employees in the chain’s eight outlets and concession stores in the Republic were made redundant on Monday after the multinational chain went into administration.
Most of the workers were notified that their contracts had been terminated only when they turned up for work on Monday.
The employees have still not been paid for work and overtime done over Christmas and may have to wait up to a year for statutory redundancy entitlements.
Officials from the Mandate trade union, which represents the workers, met the company’s administrator, KPMG, at the Clarion Hotel in Liffey Valley.
Mandate divisional organiser Michael Meegan described the hour-long meeting as “positive and constructive”.
“KPMG’s representatives in Ireland are well aware of our concerns about the monies owed to La Senza staff in relation to pay, overtime and holidays, as well as redundancy,” Mr Meegan said.
“These concerns have now been passed on to their colleagues in the UK and we were told that they are still considering their response.
“In the meantime, the sit-in at Liffey Valley continues with the full support of the Mandate trade union as well as the wider public and political leaders across the political spectrum,” he added.
KPMG’s two representatives at the meeting could not be contacted last night.
However, La Senza said employees made redundant as a result of company failure were entitled to claim for their statutory entitlements under the Insolvency Payments scheme.
Lynn Higgins-Gill, store supervisor at the Liffey Valley branch, claimed, however, that staff had been repeatedly lied to regarding the future of the company’s branches here. She said workers had been told that closing-down signs posted on the windows of the stores during the Christmas sales were merely “procedural” and did not reflect the precarious position of the business.
“What we’re fighting for is what we’ve spent the whole of Christmas, away from our families, working for,” she said.
