Paris Bakery workers visit owner’s house seeking unpaid wages

Sunday 25 May 2014

Mandate Trade Union has been supporting a group of workers in the Paris Bakery on Moore Street in Dublin who were left without more than three months pay equating to over €55,000.

Mandate Lead Organiser Bill Abom and some of the workers from the bakery visited the home of the co-owner of the business, Ruth Savill, today (Sunday, 25th May) seeking more than €55,000 in unpaid wages.

The award winning Paris Bakery is jointly owned by Ms Savill & Mr Yannick Forel.

More than 20 workers at the former restaurant and bakery had not been paid for more than two months when the owner shut the doors last Tuesday.

On Friday, their employer began removing assets from the premises and the workers were forced to sit-in the building preventing the removal of all products and equipment until they got paid.

Anissa Hosany, spokesperson for the workers said, “We visited the house of Ms Savill because she is refusing to engage with us. We have been forced to sleep on the floor of the restaurant for the past two days. We are in a desperate situation and we need the owners to come to an agreement with us immediately.”

She added, “We want the money owed to us as soon as possible. We do not have any money to live on because we haven’t been paid in so long. We know that the owners have the money to pay us but they are just refusing and it is really unfair.”

Beatrice Douat, former assistant manager at the bakery said, “At the moment we are being supported by the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland and some trade union’s. The public have also been very good and we are relying on this goodwill to ensure we can eat over the past few days.”

One of the workers has become homeless after the owners did not pay him for two months. All of the workers are migrants and in very vulnerable positions.

Matilde Naranjo, a former waitress in the restaurant said, “We just want this to be sorted out as soon as possible. Workers like us should not have to sit-in a building in order to get our wages and the Irish government should do something to stop this from happening to anyone ever again.”

Mr Forel has told the workers that he will meet with them tomorrow but has so far not committed to resolving the situation. However, the workers want to meet with both owners in order to ensure a swift resolution is found.

Mandate General Secretary, John Douglas, who has spent the two nights with the workers in their sit-in said, “The treatment of these workers is a disgrace and the owners of the company should be ashamed of themselves.

“They’ve used and abused the good-will of their staff and have now left them high and dry. Mandate will assist these workers in whatever way we can and we will pursue their employers until this is resolved,” he said.

You can sign a petition supporting the workers by clicking here.