Iceland workers at Talbot Street shop stage sit-in

Workers at the Talbot Street chain of Iceland are staging a sit-in, at what is being called an “escalation” of last week’s disputes between redundant workers and store management.

The Irish arm of the Iceland chain of shops announced they were going into examinership last week owing to unpaid debts of over €35 million, with the further announcement of shops being shut down nationwide leaving nearly 350 people redundant.

Workers staged a sit-in at the Coolock branch last Wednesday, with the sit-in beginning last Wednesday morning before ending the sit-in late on Wednesday evening after receiving reassurances from the examinership that the workers’ demands would be met.

However, trust between the staff and management has broken down again, and staff of the Talbot Street franchise are engaging in what a People Before Profit representative is calling an “escalation” of last week’s events.

Speaking to Dublin People, Mulvany said that workers are being advised to “take the next step” in their dispute with Iceland’s management.

“Commitments were given, promises were made and they were broken,” he said.

Mulvany remarked “Iceland are a company that did very well out of Covid, but yet they don’t seem to have the money to pay these workers what they deserve.”

Reports of air conditioning being turned off during the recent heat wave and staff being held personally accountable for unsold stock have been widely reported in the media since news emerged of potential troubles at the supermarket chain.

“There are numerous issues of workers not being paid properly, I know a woman in the shop who is owed over €1,000 in unpaid wages, and there are reports of workers submitting their weekly timesheets and only being paid for 3 of the 6 days they worked in that particular week.”

When asked what had changed in the dispute, Mulvany said that the commitments from management that were granted last Wednesday as means of calling off the sit-in in the Cooblack branch had not been met and the “next step” had to be taken in order to solve the dispute.

“Action had to be taken today to get these workers what they are owed,” said Mulvany, adding that the Independent Workers’ union were backing them in the dispute.