“Seven days in, we’re staying strong. Today (Thursday 29 May) workers and supporters will again take our demands to the estate of multi-millionaire company director Ruth Savill in Wicklow. It’s the end of the month: our rent is due, we have bills to pay. Giving up is not an option.
 
Last Friday morning, to stop company director Yannick Forel from stripping assets from the bakery, we began a sit-in. We’ve spent six nights here, sleeping on the floor, just to get the money we have already earned.
 
We are each owed up to three months’ wages. The longer we stay here, the more Paris Bakery workers come to us and reveal that they too are owed wages – now in the region of €100,000 in total.
 
Our employers, Ruth Savill and Yannick Forel, have left us in limbo. They refuse to pay us the wages we are owed for months of work, and they also refuse to declare the company insolvent so we can get support from the Insolvency Fund.
 
The response from the public has been amazing – our Facebook page is approaching 4,000 likes after just one week. MEPs, Moore Street traders, TDs, former customers and local businesses have all expressed their support for us in person and online. Almost 3,000 people have signed our petition, which we will leave for Ruth Savill at her Wicklow mansion.
 
Ruth Savill and Yannick Forel profited from our work; now they need to pay us for it.”