A legal expert with the SIPTU Workers Rights Centre has been appointed to sit on a Committee of Investigation to oversee the liquidation process of OCS Operations, the company which operated Clerys department store.

Hugh Hegarty attended the first meeting of the eight-person Committee of Investigation on Monday, 8^th September.  The Committee includes five representatives of creditors of OCS Operations. Hegarty was nominated by former Clerys workers to represent their interests on the Committee.

The Committee has been established under the 2014 Companies Act. It sanctions the exercise of certain powers of the liquidator including any litigation it seeks to undertake, the payment of the liquidator’s fees and acts as a consultation body during the process.

SIPTU Sector Organiser, Teresa Hannick, said: “The Clerys workers will not be giving up their campaign until the new owners of the department store meet them and explain why they felt they could treat people so appallingly. The workers have been protesting weekly outside the registered offices of Natrium in Dublin. They will be maintaining this protest and intensifying their campaign in the coming weeks.”

A petition, written and online, in support of the workers' call to meet the new owners has already received over 18,000 signatures. The workers are calling on the directors of Natrium, the consortium that bought the store on 12^th June, to explain in a face-to-face meeting their decision to liquidate the business resulting in over 400 job losses.


Clerys Department Store Creditors Meeting in Dublin. KPMG, the liquidator for Clerys Department Store, held a creditors meeting in the Gresham Hotel on Thursday, 1st September. Photo shows John Crowe who worked in the store for 43 years speaking to the press. Photo: RollingNews.ie