‘Clerys Like’ Closures Coming to a Store Near You – Crowe

Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD  Seán Crowe speaking on the anniversary of the closure Dublin’s iconic clothing store Clery’s  has said that there is every chance that with no new proactive legislation for vulnerable workers that more ‘Clery like’ closures are likely to be coming to a store near you.

The overnight closure of the Dublin department store saw 460 people lose their jobs without redundancies while the owners walked away with profits of up to €15 million euro.

Deputy Crowe said that Sinn Féin will be introducing legislation this week which seeks to include a provision to close the current loophole and deal with similar so-called ‘tactical insolvencies’.

Deputy Seán Crowe said:

“This is the first Anniversary of the closure of Clerys and the shocking way in which the iconic Dublin store was liquidated.  The Gordon Brothers Group essentially split the company in two parts allowing the company directors avoid any legal responsibility to the 460 loyal staff (some who had worked for decades) and  walk away with a handsome, €15 million profit.

“This week my party Sinn Féin, will introduce legislation that seeks to insert a new provision in the Companies Act 2014 in order to try and deal with so called ‘tactical insolvencies’ that leave many employees without the basic or minimum  redundancy package.

“Sinn Féin’s legislation hopes to bridge the gap where assets and the rights of employees are legally allowed to be overlooked and in many such cases, simply ignored.

“This appears to have happened in the case of the Clery’s with their employees being left high and dry while the company  walked away and pocketed millions.

“Our legislation attempts to hold unscrupulous business owners to account and at the same time protect vulnerable workers. Currently the system in effect allows the separation or  legal ‘personality’ of a company away from its Director’s, protecting them from  any liability of their business’s obligations to its employees in cases of tactical insolvency.

“There is no denying that Gordon Brothers walked away from the Clerys sale with multi millions of euro in profits that left Irish taxpayers with the added responsibility to pay holiday money and redundancies to these workers.

“The company also walked away from a whopping €2 million that they supposedly owed to the concession holders in the store.

“The new legislation hopes to close the current loophole and prevent other rogue employers from engaging in tactical insolvencies with the sole purpose of avoiding legal responsibilities to their creditors and employees.

“I believe that without new and proactive legislation there is every chance that more and more of these ‘Clery like’ closures are coming to a store near you.”