STAFF AT GAME stores around the country are waiting to hear from administrators to find out if they will receive redundancy payments from the company.

Around 110 staff at eleven stores are holding sit-in protests after the chain store announced that all of its branches in the Republic of Ireland are to close.

Staff were told of the closures by phone on Monday morning. Around 121 jobs are to be lost with the closure of the computer game chain.

Staff say they were given no notice period and that the company has told them it will not be paying redundancy. The company has told workers they will be able to claim minimum redundancy payments from the State.

“We’ve been told that we’ll be paid for March this Friday but we’re unsure that that will actually happen,” said Emma Walsh, former manager of the Limerick branch of Game. “We’re hoping to hear that they’ll listen to our concerns. We feel we’ve been treated unfairly”.

We want our redundancy payments to be looked after. We were told to claim payments from the State but we were given information on how to claim from the UK, not how to claim in Ireland.

Staff at the eleven stores have been told to pack up the stock but are refusing to do so until assurances have been given about payments.

“We’re not going to damage stock but we’re not going to clear the shops and send it back until our claims have been met,” said Walsh.

“Everyone is in good form at the moment. We’re pretty resolute and ready to fight,” she said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has been appointed the administrators of the stores in Britain which are due to close but no firm has yet been appointed by Game to handle the Irish store closures.

Several workers from the Vita Cortex plant, currently in their 104th day of a sit-in, met with Game workers in the shop in Mahon Point in Cork earlier.