Former Irish GAME Employees Staging Sit-Ins At Closed Locations

In a new twist to the already slightly crazy story of UK video games retailer GAME's current financial woes, Silicon Republic is reporting that a number of former GAME employees based in Ireland are staging a protest over what they allege is shoddy treatment from their former employer.

Employees at the Monaghan location in Ireland began a sit-in at the now closed location, and other employees from other Irish locations have evidently followed suit. The issue at hand? The matter of back pay and redundancy benefits, of which the ex-employees say they were denied by GAME and their administrator, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

According to their statement, none of the Irish GAME employees were offered any pay beyond the remainder of their March paycheck. As PricewaterhouseCoopers is focused on the UK portion of the administration process, they have allegedly failed to assign an administrator to handle the Irish closures, and rather directed former Irish employees to instead seek redundancy entitlements from the Irish government, while making no effort to support them in that effort.

The Irish employees state that they have no desire to make themselves a burden for the Irish taxpayers, nor do they want to wait the year it would take to go through the redundancy entitlement process with the Irish government. Instead, they are asking for the same attention and benefits afforded to UK GAME employees affected by the layoffs.

The full statement from the Irish protesters can be read here. As of now, GAME has yet to respond to the Irish ex-employees' demands, though PricewaterhouseCooper has promised to update the protesters soon. If you have any interest in showing the Irish employees your support, they have a Facebook page set up here.

Solidarity, guys. Don't take any guff form those swine

This entire thing has been handled extremely poorly by all involved with the administration process.

Also, I love that this post is attached to the disgruntled subjects page.

That's pretty sucky. I hope these guys and any other employees being badly treated can get what they're owed, but I'm not holding my breath on this one.

Sad for the ppl losing their jobs but any one whos looked into any of what GAMES been up to shouldnt be sorry to see that cess pit of a company crumble

So wait, are they not getting paid for hours they've already worked? Or are they trying to get something like unemployment from Game? Either way, this is pretty shitty.

Lol, pedo on the left.

And what are they complaining about? Sounds like they were paid what they were owed, but they're feeling grumpy that they weren't given more?

Such a sad state of affairs. 2 of the branches I used local to me have closed. It's like Woolworths all over again. :-(

Is this whole debacle a foreshadowing of what will eventually happen to Gamestop in the States?

Well, my opinion of GAME is now even lower, I never liked them but now they aren't even paying their employees who they've fucked over.

@GunslingerPanda said:

Lol, pedo on the left.

And what are they complaining about? Sounds like they were paid what they were owed, but they're feeling grumpy that they weren't given more?

They're grumpy because they weren't given the same benefits the UK employees were.

haha there is a Disgruntled Subjects page. Well that kind of sucks for the former employees

Not only that, but they weren't given any notice of redundancy, which is illegal here in Ireland. They were simply told on the day that they had to cease trading immediately, and they were all being made redundant. It's terrible handling of the situation, and the employees deserve better.

I've heard lots of bad things about the shopping experience in GAME in the UK, but the staff in the Irish stores, at least the ones I frequented were all nice people. Most of them students like me. I feel terrible for all of them.

Not sure what the sources or the Irish employees are claiming here, but from conversations with my (several) friends who were made redundant from their UK GAME and Gamestation shops this past Monday, NONE of them were offered redundancy either. So it's less a fact that the administrators left Ireland out of the equation and more to do with the fact that the administrators have not offered anybody redundancy pay at all, or at the very least, nobody below higher management.

Sinne Fianna Fáil

As soon as the adminstrators get involved you go straight to the bottom of the pecking order. Iv'e seen what some of the guys charge out at on an hourly basis, and it's ridiculous.

Man, video game store employees look the same all over the world!

I'm not sad to see Game go but It's good to see this getting coverage in other places than just locally.

A few companies have done this and the real worry is that more will try the same thing, they know they're going down the tubes and don't provide any redundancy for their long term employees. To be unemployed in Ireland is a quite scary thing right now and for your last job to be a store clerk is frightening, it's not like there's a shortage of them. I hope they've been working away skilling up so they could move on to something better but I think the chances of that aren't great for anyone who isn't studying in college/uni.

I liked GAME better than Gamestop. Thankfully we have both in Galway, Ireland.

So, he's formerly Irish?

chucky ar la.

I'm going to buy 2 boxes of luck charms this week to lend my support. I only hope the rest of you will do the same.

"former Irish". I can't help but think that there's a better way to word that

Unless sitting and protesting is going to turn into a full time paid job, I'd suggest they start looking for new work.

@CaLe said:

chucky ar la.

1. Its disgusting that you wrote that

2. You wrote it and miss spelled it you feckless armchair "republican", who most likely is too ignorant to know what it means or the MASSIVELY insulting connotations behind it

@GunslingerPanda said:

Lol, pedo on the left.

And what are they complaining about? Sounds like they were paid what they were owed, but they're feeling grumpy that they weren't given more?

That is a little over the top....

Good on them I say. GAME management deserve nothing less. Their mismanagement brought GAME into this situation in the first place.

Unless sitting and protesting is going to turn into a full time paid job, I'd suggest they start looking for new work.

Pretty shit treatment, t'be sure.

@GunslingerPanda said:

Lol, pedo on the left.

And what are they complaining about? Sounds like they were paid what they were owed, but they're feeling grumpy that they weren't given more?

Ya. It's not like they lost their jobs and got none of the entitlements others are getting or anything.

I will say, though, sitting in front of a closed store doesn't seem like that really means that much. It's already out of business so you're not preventing anything and kind of making any statement seem fairly moot. That seems kind of strange.

I am sad so many lost their jobs :(

Hi all please take the time to vist and like there facebook page, and help these guys get what they are owed.

cheers

@CornBREDX said:

@GunslingerPanda said:

Lol, pedo on the left.

And what are they complaining about? Sounds like they were paid what they were owed, but they're feeling grumpy that they weren't given more?

Ya. It's not like they lost their jobs and got none of the entitlements others are getting or anything.

I will say, though, sitting in front of a closed store doesn't seem like that really means that much. It's already out of business so you're not preventing anything and kind of making any statement seem fairly moot. That seems kind of strange.

They are sitting in the stores and refusing to hand over the keys and stock to the administrators. Also the stock has been ordered to be shipped back to the UK which sounds suspiciously like the upper managment are trying to get as many assets out of the country as possible so they dont have to pay their Irish creditors

@VinLieger: Ah, ok. That makes much more sense.

@damnable_fiend said:

"former Irish". I can't help but think that there's a better way to word that

They took EVERYTHING from them; their jobs, their livelihoods and their nationalities.

These expatriate defectors are on a virtuous mission. Militaires Sans Frontieres.

Glad I'm not the only one to wonder if they are just former employees, or formerly Irish.

Joking aside, that's a bummer, but I'm also not really sure what they can get out of this - does the administration company owe them anything, seeing as they aren't their employees?

Always sad when people lose jobs. Hope these people affected get back on their feet quickly.

I know a guy who works for them (I assume he still does ? God I should check). He told me they received a note a few weeks back essentially saying "GUYS ! DON'T PANICK ! EVERYTHING IS FINE !"

yyyeah...

This is the least Navarro article since...ever.

The Irish employees have every right to that pay. Just because they aren't in the main jurisdiction that the company has focused on doesn't mean they have any right to be denied the same severance packages that the UK employees do. Hope they manage to get their money because they are absolutely right that the Irish taxpayers shouldn't have to cover for shoddy business practices.

This is gonna happen more and more as we travel towards digital distrabution. Soon all entertainment will be beamed into your house with no real use for retail, it's a shame that peoples job have been sacrificed to a distribution method.

Sucks, but when a company hits bankruptcy there's not much the employees can do.

@VinLieger said:

@CaLe said:

chucky ar la.

1. Its disgusting that you wrote that

2. You wrote it and miss spelled it you feckless armchair "republican", who most likely is too ignorant to know what it means or the MASSIVELY insulting connotations behind it

Did I hurt your feelings?

Yay a mention of Ireland! For negative reasons, inevitable I suppose. Feel bad for these guys, the Game I'd frequent mostly is Donegal Arcade in Belfast, it's staying open but the staff in there are generally great. I remember them helping me out big time when I needed to transfer my data to my new 360.

I hope these guys get something out of this, GAME has been a sinking ship for a long time, the bosses should have had a plan in place.

@CaLe said:

@VinLieger said:

@CaLe said:

chucky ar la.

1. Its disgusting that you wrote that

2. You wrote it and miss spelled it you feckless armchair "republican", who most likely is too ignorant to know what it means or the MASSIVELY insulting connotations behind it

Did I hurt your feelings?

Nope but you did confirm your a pathetic troll, thanks i will now gladly ignore your existence

@Junpei: Thing is, the UK employees have been offered no redundancy pay or any compensation either. Everyone is in the same shit situation.

@VinLieger: You are the troll here. A ginger headed troll.

@CaLe said:

@VinLieger said:

@CaLe said:

chucky ar la.

1. Its disgusting that you wrote that

2. You wrote it and miss spelled it you feckless armchair "republican", who most likely is too ignorant to know what it means or the MASSIVELY insulting connotations behind it

Did I hurt your feelings?

You are so edgy bro

@Xpgamer7 said:

This is the least Navarro article since...ever.

I guess even Alex realises that sometimes one has to just cut down the sarcasm a notch for a pretty serious topic like this.