A documentary about the workers at the forefront of the Debenhams strike will premiere this weekend.
The documentary, entitled "406 days", is directed by Joe Lee and produced by Fergus Dowd and will have a red carpet premiere at Dublin’s Lighthouse Cinema on Saturday, closing out the Dublin International Film Festival.
Due to high demand, the documentary will be shown on three screens that night. Last weekend the production scooped the "ICCL Human Rights Award" at the festival.
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In April 2020, approximately 1,000 Debenhams workers at 11 stores across the county were let go via generic email as the retailer pulled out of Ireland. Staff manned picket lines for 406 days during the pandemic, showing up everyday despite rain, snow and threats of arrest.
Jane Crowe, former shop steward at Debenhams on Henry Street, told Dublin Live that those involved are "so proud" of the documentary.
"There's a number of us interviewed during it so we're giving our own stories and experiences at the picket line," she said. "It's also about how we felt losing our jobs, how long we worked there.
"I was there for 24 years so I talked about the experiences I had while I was there. It also shows us going to the Workplace Relations Commission. We're still waiting on that, we haven't got a result yet. And also the Debenhams Bill which went to the third stage recently, we're keeping people informed about that."
Jane said she hopes that workers will "feel inspired" after watching it. "It will show workers in general that watch it that these things can happen without you even realising it. These things can happen at the drop of a hat.
"I'm hoping it will inspire people to act on it and know that there are options there and you can stand up for yourself."
Jane said it is "amazing" to see the major interest in the documentary, as it was a "small production".
"We sent emails, we rang up people to get people to donate towards the production of the documentary," she said. "We didn't get any Government funding or anything, we got it all ourselves.
"It's a very small production but we have lots of people to thank who donated towards it."
Solidarity TD Mick Barry brought the Companies (Protection of Employees’ Rights in Liquidations) Bill 2021, dubbed the Debenhams Bill, to the Dail in 2021. If passed, legislation would make workers preferential creditors in a liquidation so they would be paid what they were owed as a priority. The bill is currently at the third stage.
A test case is currently before the Workplace Relations Commission, in connection with around 750 former Debenhams workers' complaints over how they were made redundant.
Mandate trade union will be before the Workplace Relations Commission on Friday to represent workers.
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