A pregnant Debenhams protester is due to have her ‘picket-line’ baby after pushing for an “equitable” end to the industrial dispute for the last seven months.
Claire O’Leary stopped trucks from removing stock from the Patrick Street store and organised the campaign’s social media for the last seven months.
She hopes that her baby, due to be delivered on Wednesday, will be born into a country with strengthened workers’ rights.
“I found out that I was pregnant just before we lost our jobs. The fact that my baby will be born now really shows what a long-lasting dispute this has been,” said Claire.
The situation is terrible. The girls can’t be left out on the picket for much longer. And they’ve come so far they can’t back down now.
“It’s time government put its foot down. Talk is cheap, we need action now.”
That action, she said, is getting liquidators KPMG, Mandate trade union, workers representatives and the Workplace Relations Commission into urgent talks.
She also called for the Government to fund some of the redundancy pay deal which was agreed before the company went into liquidation.
That deal had promised Debenhams staff two weeks pay per year of service in addition to their two-week statutory entitlement.
'It needs to be sorted before Christmas'
“How many TDs are from Cork where we have two Debenhams stores? They should be standing by us,” Ms O’Leary said from Cork University Maternity Hospital.
“It needs to be sorted before Christmas, so everyone can be at home with their families instead of out on the streets.
“It’s been tough. I was there as much as I could be [throughout pregnancy] but some days I was too tired so I worked on the social media from my couch.
“The girls were great. When I was on the picket they’d make sure I ate or would find me a stool on the picket line to sit on.”
Ms O’Leary said that she had been a supervisor in Debenhams before the company folded.
She found out she was pregnant in early March, just before the store closed.
“I was really looking forward to being pregnant in work, sharing that with the girls," said Claire. "But it’s been great to see everyone on the picket at least."
I worked there for 10 years with a really great team. We’re like one big family. It’s sad that we’re not going to work together anymore.
But one last thing they hope to achieve together is to strengthen workers' rights through new legislation which would implement recommendations made in the Duffy Cahill report which examined workers rights in insolvencies following the liquidation of Dublin department store Cleary's.
“We don’t want to see anyone in this position again. The workers at Vita Cortex didn’t want to see it, the workers at Cleary's didn’t want to see it.
"Something should have been done then but we’re determined to see it done now," she said.
“After all our work it would be a nice legacy.”
