Minister Coveney, help the Iceland workers!

To: Neale Richmond, TD and Simon Coveney TD

More than 400 Iceland workers have been left high and dry by their employer. Unpaid wages, holiday pay, redundancy pay, and much more have been left unpaid. Many have no idea how they are going to pay their bills, keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table for their families.

This has happened in the past to workers in Debenhams, Clerys, Paris Bakery, La Senza and countless others. After Clerys the government commissioned a report entitled “Duffy/Cahill” to address these issues but to this day its recommendations haven’t been implemented. This needs to stop!

We need you to:

- ensure Iceland pays its workers what is owed to them.
- implement all the recommendations of the Duffy/Cahill report
- make workers preferential creditors in tactical insolvencies and examinerships
- meet with the workers and establish a way forward

It’s clear the current system isn’t working for workers. The WRC and Labour Court do not have the power or ability to deal with these issues so the government needs to support Iceland workers and others before this happens again