WORKERS AT THE Paris Bakery on Dublin’s Moore Street are entering the 12th day of their sit-in at their former place of work over unpaid wages which, they say, total almost €100,000.
The staff have called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to intervene in the dispute which shows no signs of being resolved.
Bakery co-owner Yannik Foral was due to meet with staff on Friday but the meeting did not go ahead.
The twenty-five employees at the popular bakery, which shut its doors on Friday 23 May, say that they have been left in limbo because the company is still technically trading. This means that they cannot access the State’s Insolvency Fund, which deals with workers in their situation.
“Our only hope is that the Revenue Commissioners close the company so we can get the money we are owed,” said Eduard Claihnet, one of the workers.
Anissa Hosany, who worked at the bakery for more than three and a half years, said that workers “had been left with nothing and feel abandoned”.
“If I put my hand in the till and stole money I would be prosecuted and punished,” she said, saying that what the employers had done was not being “taken seriously”.
“We know that this happens to lots of other workers. We want our experience to help make the situation better for others. The government needs to act quickly to change the law so that business owners can’t simply walk away from their failed businesses without winding [them] up”.
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