Workers and student groups join forces in support of nightclub staff fight for wages

Students’ unions at both of Galway’s third level colleges, trade unions, and a group called We’re Not Leaving Galway have joined forces in a bid to ensure former staff members at a city centre night club get paid.

Just under two weeks ago, the staff members discovered via a social media page that they had lost their jobs at The Bentley, Eyre Square, after it had reportedly shut down “temporarily” in mid-January.

A Facebook page called Pay The Bentley Staff has received over 2,800 ‘likes’ since it was set up last week and the staff members, who are mostly in their early twenties, have been given legal advice regarding the money owed.

Most of the 30 employees are owed at least two weeks’ wages, plus holiday pay, from O Bruadair Investments Limited, the company which ran The Bentley since the Summer of 2012.

“We’ve had no contact with the management whatsoever,” said one female employee yesterday. “I myself am owed almost two years’ worth of holiday pay and I’ve had to move back in with my parents in Headford because I cannot afford to pay my bills in Galway.

“We’ve been told that the company is set to be declared insolvent, which means we would have to go to Social Welfare to get any money owed. We’ve been told that could take months rather than a matter of weeks.”

She said many of her former colleagues were students and part-time workers, who were finding it difficult to meet their living costs. A number of them have returned home to live with their parents over the past two weeks.

O Bruadair Investment Limited, set up by brothers Shane and James Broderick, ran the club from July 2012 until staff were notified of the closure via Facebook two weeks ago.

Business owners Shane and James Broderick are also understood to owe money to a number of suppliers and to their landlord at the Eyre Square premise.