Former Debenhams employees raise money for Bangladeshi workers who lost clothing contracts after company fell into administration

Laid-off staff members say workers in Dhaka are owed 'respect and appreciation'

Former Debenhams employees who were laid off last month have raised nearly £2,000 to help Bangladeshi employees who lost clothing contracts due to the company’s cutbacks.

The fashion retailer fell into administration last month and put its Irish chain into liquidation after facing financial troubles related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Irish workers who are campaigning to be paid redundancy payments for their own lay-offs said they learned that workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, had also lost their jobs and would not receive state unemployment benefits.

“In the middle of a pandemic, 69 Debenhams Bangladesh liaison office employees have been discarded with nothing and no hope of a new job,” Sally Deighton wrote on a GoFundMe campaign page set up by the workers.

Ms Deighton said the Bangladeshi workers were under lockdown at the time of their dismissal and Debenhams had not paid their April salaries.

“Our friends and colleagues are owed: April salary, redundancy pay, and most of all respect and appreciation,” she added.

“They were proud to work for Debenhams and prioritised their job above all else.”

The GoFundMe page set up by the Irish employees has raised £1,876, as of Wednesday morning, and has an overall goal of raising £20,000 in total.

In a video attached to the page, the Bangladesh staff said their families were not afraid of the Covid-19 pandemic but were afraid instead of “Debenhams injustice”.

A spokesperson for the workers told The Irish Times they were thankful for the support.

“I’m overwhelmed while I see your initiatives and how humanity is still alive. You don’t know us. None of us visited Ireland ever. But you feel our team members’ pain from thousands of miles away,” the spokesperson said.

ITV News said last week it had seen correspondence from Debenhams’ administrator to Bangladeshi suppliers demanding a 90 per cent discount on garments orders which were already at UK ports.

The company has been accused of cancelling or withholding about £53m worth of payment on orders from Bangladeshi suppliers, according to The Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

A Debenhams spokesperson told The Independent that the company was sorry for the "very tough decision" it had made and insisted the retailer had worked to minimise job losses.

”We are very sorry we have had to make this very tough decision. Our aim throughout has been to minimise job losses as far as possible," the spokesperson said.

"This is not a decision that has been taken lightly, and we recognise how difficult this is for our colleagues in Bangladesh, but it is unavoidable and reflects the exceptional circumstances we and all other businesses are now in."