Good News for retail workers at Blanchardstown and Superquinn
Wednesday 26 October 2011Mandate Trade Union welcomed good news for retail workers following both the Competition Authority’s decision to approve the Musgrave Group’s takeover of Superquinn and the new lease agreement at the Blanchardstown Centre.
The union represents most of the 2,800 staff at the retailer. Mandate Assistant General Secretary, Gerry Light, described the Competition Authority’s decision to approve the Musgrave Group’s takeover of Superquinn as a very positive development.
“Mandate Trade Union looks forward to working with Musgraves to grow Superquinn’s business, secure the jobs at the company as well as staff’s terms and conditions of employment.”
In other retail news, Mandate has also welcomed the new 15-year lease agreed between the Arcadia Group and Green Properties Ltd. According to Mandate Divisional Organiser, Brendan O’Hanlon, this agreement is good news as it will protect almost 100 retail jobs at the Arcadia Group’s outlets in the Blanchardstown Centre including Top Shop, Top Man, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and Burtons.
“Last April, the Arcadia Group informed its staff of its intention to close its seven outlets in the Blanchardstown Centre. Negotiations then took place between Mandate Trade Union and Arcadia and the issue regarding options for the 104 staff affected were referred to the Labour Relations Commission (LRC).
“In July, Arcadia advised Mandate – during an LRC hearing – that agreement had been reached with Green Properties and that only the Evans store would be closing with 14 staff affected. Following local negotiations in August, proposals regarding options for the staff affected were unanimously accepted and they included redeployment on current terms and conditions or voluntary redundancy of five weeks pay, including statutory redundancy.
“We’re very pleased that the Arcadia Group has confirmed that a new 15-year lease had been agreed with Green Properties Limited. This is good news for the almost 100 workers concerned, their families and communities, as well as for the Blanchardstown Centre,” Brendan O’Hanlon concluded.
