Mandate Trade Union condemns B&Q for refusing meeting regarding examinership
Tuesday 12 February 2013Mandate Trade Union today (Tuesday, 12 February) strongly condemned management at B&Q for refusing to meet with the workers’ representatives to discuss the recent decision to place the home improvement business into Examinership.
The union claims the refusal to meet with them only serves to heighten suspicions regarding the motives of putting the company into examinership.
“Until such a time as we have alternative information, we have to consider the possibility of management using the examinership process as a crude vehicle to obtain rent reductions off their landlords,” said Gerry Light, Assistant General Secretary of Mandate Trade Union.
“If this is the case, it is totally out of order. The company should have taken into account the impact such a decision would have on their staff. The uncertainty for employees for at least the next one hundred days is an unfair imposition on a loyal workforce who haven’t had a pay increase for the past number of years.
“Not only do these workers not know whether they will have their jobs in a number of weeks time, but they cannot plan simple things like summer holidays with their families.
It is claimed that B&Q Ireland is €17 million in debt, but the debt is not owed to banks, rather their owners, Kingfisher plc, a highly profitable multinational organisation which had profits of over €1 billion last year. The Union says given these unique circumstances there are better ways of doing business which are not as inconsiderate to their workforce.
“Mandate sought a meeting so that it could establish for its members the status of the company in order to ease their growing concerns. The company have responded saying they will not meet with us and that is totally unnacceptable,” said Mr Light.
“We have been left with no option but to write to the Examiner seeking a meeting given the dismissive attitude of management,” he added.
“If it is the case that the company is using the examinership process as a first resort as opposed to a last resort then their workers have every right to be aggrieved and we will pursue B&Q management, the examiners and the owners of the company until such time as they give our members a satisfactory update on what is going on in the company,” concluded Mr Light.
