WORKERS ARE HOLDING a sit-in at a La Senza store in Dublin’s Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in a dispute over pay, after the lingerie company made almost 100 of its employees in Ireland redundant.

The employees say that they are owed wages from December and January, including overtime payments – and will not leave until all employees receive the money they are owed.

25 workers from the chain, including workers from the Grafton Street and Henry Street branches, have been in the store in the west Dublin shopping centre since they lost their jobs yesterday.

“We’re not going down without a fight,” said Tara Keane, a former supervisor for the La Senza concession in Debenhams on Dublin’s Henry Street, who is in the Liffey Valley shop.

“We’ve been told that La Senza will not be giving us a cent. We’ve worked hard for the company, especially over Christmas, even with the threat hanging over us. Some of us have worked for the company for a long time,” Keane told TheJournal.ie.

We don’t want a lot. We’ll be here as long as we can be here.

The employees worked over the Christmas period, with many part-time workers doing large amounts of overtime in the assumption that they would be paid despite the company’s financial difficulties, Keane said.

Mandate Trade Union have this evening said that they will meet with KPMG,  the administrators of La Senza, tomorrow morning to discuss the concerns of the former staff members.

Employees were told that the company would not be making any redundancy payments and that workers should instead apply for statutory redundancy.

The former employees have received food, money and support from passers-by in the shopping centre, Keane said.

La Senza, popular for its underwear and pyjamas, went into administration just before Christmas. It blamed the “overall macroeconomic environment” for its decision to close.

Photographs from the sit-in this afternoon: