Crowe supports GAME store workers during Dáil debate

Speaking today in the Dáil in support of employees seeking redundancy payments from GAME stores, Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe said:

“It is nothing short of scandalous that 123 employees of GAME stores acrossIrelandare not only to lose their jobs, they are also to be denied their basic right to a fair and equitable redundancy package.

“When I met workers from the Tallaght GAME store they were optimistic that there would be a resolution to the dispute. However after holding talks with senior management they were told they “don’t have a leg to stand on” and have no right to expect a redundancy package.

“This is because GAME Ireland, despite operating retail outlets across this state for nearly two decades, is still governed by British legislation meaning Irish employment laws do not apply to its Irish workforce.

“One of the members of staff I spoke to has been employed by GAME for 17 years yet his loyal service to the company means nothing.

“It is simply outrageous that a loophole in the existing employment laws is being exploited by senior management in order not to honour their commitment to their employees.

“The priority of GAME executives is to pay off their creditors and banks meaning that as usual, the ordinary working man and woman is being cast aside and treated with callous contempt.

“It is a damning indictment on both the previous administration, and the present government, that large multi-national companies such as La Senza, Vita Cortex and now Game, can treat their Irish workforce in this way. We live in 2012,  not 1913, and the Government must implement changes to the existing legislation so that the rights of workers are protected.

“It is incumbent upon Minister Burton that she intervenes in this dispute and ensures the workers employed in the fourteen Irish GAME stores receive their full entitlements. Action must also be taken immediately to implement new legislation that will protect workers from this type of intolerable treatment.”