In June 2015, 460 workers at Clery’s were made redundant, after their company was sold as a going concern to a property investment grouping. The workers received little notice of what was happening, even though many had worked for the company for decades.
Irish employment law offers weak protections to workers but there are some small measures which can slow down the actions of their employers. However, few bosses have been prosecuted for breaching these laws.
This makes what happened to Deirdre Foley, one of the owners of Clerys all the more remarkable. For despite facing charges in the courts, she managed to walk free because of non-disclosure of witness statements by state agencies. Or to put it more simply, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection botched the prosecution.
Foley was originally due to appear in court in January on charges of impeding a Workplace Relations Commission inspector. This was the only charge which carried a potential jail sentence. But the state’s case was dropped after legal argument.
She was then supposed to appear on a number of lesser charges. These included a failure to initiate consultation with Clerys’ workers as required by the Protection of Employment Act; failing to supplying them with all relevant information relating to redundancies and not notifying the Minister of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation of the impending redundancies in writing.
However, these charges were then struck out after a delay in disclosing witness statements.
The state appears to have no difficulty getting its legal case together when it is prosecuting workers. But when it comes to a company boss, it manages to botch the case.
Who said there was one law for the rich and another for the rest?
