Paris Bakery staff protest over claim of unpaid wages

Staff at the acclaimed Paris Bakery on Dublin’s Moore Street are staging a protest outside the building over what they claim are wages owed to them.

About 20 staff and former staff were locked out of the building this morning over what the manager said was a problem with the electricity supply.

The manager Stephen Cunningham told the Irish Times he had been in the building since last night after two phases of the electricity supply were lost.

He was still unable to open one shutter on the building and had no fridges or cash machines functioning, he said. He was in touch with staff about the situation, he said. He was also attempting to contact the directors.

Some staff claim they are owed up to €3,000 in unpaid wages.

Some former staff told the Irish Times they had left because they could no longer afford to pay their rent.

One man, a French national who has just arrived in Ireland to improve his English, is sleeping in a room over the bakery because he has no money and had not been paid, he claimed.

The company directors could not immediately be reached for comment.

The bakery faces demolition with the loss of all 70 jobs to make way for a road as part of the €900 million Dublin Central shopping centre development.

The owners of the Paris Bakery at 18 and 19 Moore Street have said they can not afford to relocate and will have to close the business when their lease expires next month.

Mr Cunningham said today that business had been bad at the cafe in recent months. He believed many people believed it had already closed.

Developer Joe O'Reilly's Chartered Land was granted planning permission in 2010 for the 2.7 hectare development on a site stretching from the former Carlton cinema on O'Connell Street to Moore Street.

However, no construction started and the lands now form part of Nama’s portfolio of loans.

Bakery owner Ruth Savill said late last year that Chartered Land offered a "dilapidated building" owned by the company on the other side of Moore Street which she described as "wholly unsuitable" for a bakery.

Ms Savill said she had been told by Chartered Land it would not extend the lease, for which she was paying €17,300 a month, beyond June.

At the time a spokeswoman for Chartered Land said it had approval for the demolition and had advised the bakery owners to start looking for new premises.

“Unfortunately Chartered Land is not in a position to offer them anything in the area as all of the Moore Street property holdings will be required for the Dublin Central development.”