Axed Game staff occupy shops

Former staff at closed Game stores have occupied their workplaces to demand redundancy payouts

Submitted by Django on March 29, 2012

All the stores in the Republic of Ireland have been occupied, after staff at the Limerick store began a sit-in. The company has closed all of its Irish stores and a large number of UK outlets, with staff working right up until the lunchtime notice to cease trading arrived.

According to James Daly, a spokesman for the workers in Cork, administrators brought in from PricewaterhouseCoopers have flouted Irish employment law by not giving the required 30 days notice for collective redundancies. Quoted by the Belfast Telegraph, he said, "They just assume the law is the same as the UK. We were told 'Go to the Government and claim your statutory redundancy'. That could take up to a year or 18 months to go through while Game is still trading in the UK.

"We do not want the Irish Government to have to pay for something we believe a company in the UK should pay for."

An ex-employee said “We have been given no forms or advice for claiming state-redundancy and no official notice of unemployment to show for the dole”

Workers also claim administrators gave them handouts on UK redundancy law in the Irish stores.

The company is attempting to move assets from Ireland back the UK in an apparent move to escape Irish creditors. They have not appointed an administrator in Ireland, and staff are sceptical that promises to pay all owed wages will be met, as there has been little communication from the company.

The occupiers' official facebook page can be found here.

Comments

flaneur

12 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by flaneur on March 29, 2012

Blimey, all of the stores in Ireland being occupied is impressive, any idea how many that is exactly?

redsdisease

12 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by redsdisease on March 29, 2012

A cached version of the website (the website itself is down right now) says that they have 14 stores in the Republic of Ireland. That's fantastic if they are all occupied.

jonthom

12 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by jonthom on March 30, 2012

awesome :-)

jonthom

12 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by jonthom on April 1, 2012

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/former-game-workers-furious-at-late-wage-admission/093715

Nearly two thousand former GAME and Gamestation staff in the UK have only discovered today that they will not receive either payment for their notice periods or redundancy.

Staff at GAME's Northern Irish stores were given the same bad news earlier this week.

What has irked most for those who received confirmation in the UK, however, is that their letters from PwC confirming the situation have arrived exactly one day after the vast majority of them have finished their last day of work.

GAME went into administration last Monday.

“PwC sent out forms to all staff, got mine today,” former GAME worker Russell Adams told MCV. “Conveniently the day AFTER we finished work saying we've to claim wages. Absolute joke, could take seven weeks!”

Another reader added: “We were told we could claim back what they didn't pay, not really true, statutory notice pay lot less than in my contract!”

There's a Facebook page and Twitter account been set up.