Santa's stand-in to be handed P45 outside former Clerys store
Santa's stand-in at Clerys will be handed his P45 today outside the iconic Dublin department store.
Mr Claus' double is just one of the hundreds of workers who lost his job when the shop closed last summer.
Trade union SIPTU has said their North Pole rep, was a regular employee on a fixed-term contract, before the firm Natrium bought Clerys and decided to liquidate the business.
Former staff have held several protests since the store shut, calling for the new owners to discuss the closure and its human consequences.
Natrium has so far refused to sit down with ex-employees and SIPTU Organiser, Robert Purfield, has said this Christmas will not be “merry” for them.
“Some of them have managed to pick up work, but most of them haven’t,” said Purfield.
“They are in the situation now where they are used to working at Christmas and being the friendly face of the store. Now it’s effectively Christmas on social welfare (for them).
“We noticed the matron has managed to do the windows up of the store and it says on the front of it ‘may all your Christmases be merry and bright’, but the feeling among the workers is it wont be merry and bright for them this year.”
