GAME in serious trouble

Nody

Nody wrote: »

I'm quite certain that any insurance on the place does not include the store being used as a living space but rather as a shop (as such premises would need to live up to very different standards).

No doubt you're correct. However, blocking the ex-staff in only makes the situation more hazardous. Other than holding stock as leverage and having their sit-in, what else can they do to get what they are entitled to?

Nody

susiespark wrote: »

No doubt you're correct. However, blocking the ex-staff in only makes the situation more hazardous. Other than holding stock as leverage and having their sit-in, what else can they do to get what they are entitled to?

Go to court? You know actually doing something that's legal and may work rather then making fools of themselves?

Nody

Nody wrote: »

[QUOTEwhat else can they do to get what they are entitled to?

Go to court? You know actually doing something that's legal and may work rather then making fools of themselves?[/Quote]

I'm sure if they could afford to go to court they would. There are a couple of staff following this thread, maybe they can let us know what's happening today. Also, for what it's worth I don't think they're making fools of themselves, I admire them for standing for their rights and highlighting the issue of companies abdicating their responsibilities and giving two fingers to Irish employment law.

Pacing Mule

susiespark wrote: »

No doubt you're correct. However, blocking the ex-staff in only makes the situation more hazardous. Other than holding stock as leverage and having their sit-in, what else can they do to get what they are entitled to?

It's a difficult one - at the end of the day the staff will either be trespassing on the property of the landlord once the leases are voided by non payment or company closure or they could be viewed as trespassing on the property of the company they used to work for. If they moved the stock anywhere else the staff are guilty of theft and can be arrested.

All in all they're caught in a rock and a hard place and my heart goes out to them.

Procrastastudy

Occupiers Liability Act 1995 - could be argued that what Blach has done is Reckless disregard in which case they would be liable even if the Staff were found to be tresspassers.

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Nody

susiespark wrote: »

I'm sure if they could afford to go to court they would. There are a couple of staff following this thread, maybe they can let us know what's happening today. Also, for what it's worth I don't think they're making fools of themselves, I admire them for standing for their rights and highlighting the issue of companies abdicating their responsibilities and giving two fingers to Irish employment law.

You do know there is a system in place to claim redundancy even if the company can't afford to pay out the statutory redundancy etc.? No need to take the company to court over it either...

As for abdicating responsibilities, well yea, that's called going bankrupt because they consistently made losses. I could understand it if they were a highly successful and profitable company moving out or something but they are not.

aN.Droid

Nody wrote: »

You do know there is a system in place to claim redundancy even if the company can't afford to pay out the statutory redundancy etc.? No need to take the company to court over it either...

As for abdicating responsibilities, well yea, that's called going bankrupt because they consistently made losses. I could understand it if they were a highly successful and profitable company moving out or something but they are not.

You do know that there is a waiting list of nearly a year for claiming redundancy from the government?

Also, GAME have no gone bankrupt, they still operate in the UK.

Procrastastudy

@Nody I realise that this thread is 75 pages long at the moment but the reasons for the guys doing this have been discussed ad nauseum. I'm not trying to say dont have your say - everyone is entitled to their opinion its just yours isn't any different from what already been expressed and is based on several faulty assumptions on your behalf.

I'll sumerise -

1) They dont want to wait almost a year (to be fair this is the main reason!)
2) They weren't even given the basics like P45s or any information relating to Ireland.
3) Why should the Irish tax payer have to foot the bill for a company that IS STILL OPERATING.
4) Why shouls the Irish tax payer have to foot the bill when a company knows its on the rocks and doesnt have the basic decency (peats as an example of the classy way to go under) to make basic provisions for paying staff.
EDIT 5) AND they wont get their Holiday pay - being an ex employee of GAME some managers have upwards of a month due on that alone which could be €3K+ they'll never see from anyone!

One minor point the "Republic of Ireland" is a football team not a state lads - I know the UK used to refer to you as ROI becuase they got confused between the UK bit and the independant bit but at this stage maybe you could start using the correct name :P

EDIT During the good times they were making INSANE amounts of money - its not as if the assests aren't still in state for the staff to be paid - they are in boxes being held hostage by the peopl sitting in!

noodler

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

One minor point the "Republic of Ireland" is a football team not a state lads - I know the UK used to refer to you as ROI becuase they got confused between the UK bit and the independant bit but at this stage maybe you could start using the correct name :P

Ireland is a Republic.

Nothing wrong with using the discription.

EDIT: And in this thread surely using ROI helps distingusih the NI stores from the ones in South.

Procrastastudy

I don't want to derail the thread with this minor point borught up by me in half in jest - its more an internal thing having worked for GAME and the fact that the Constitutional Monarcy of Great Britain and Northern Ireland based company couldn't figure out there was a difference until it came to paying people.

To be fair thats not strictly true as they did the same to people in the Constitutional Monarcy (with a devolved parliment in Scotalnd) of the UK and sent the guys here UK paperwork.

EDIT: And don't call me Shirley

robinph

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

I don't want to derail the thread with this minor point borught up by me in half in jest - its more an internal thing having worked for GAME and the fact that the Constitutional Monarcy of Great Britain and Northern Ireland based company couldn't figure out there was a difference until it came to paying people.

To be fair thats not strictly true as they did the same to people in the Constitutional Monarcy (with a devolved parliment in Scotalnd) of the UK and sent the guys here UK paperwork.

EDIT: And don't call me Shirley

Are you trying to claim that Scotland is not part of the UK? Can't quite figure out your point.

PJTierney

PJTierney wrote: »

That's a shame, GAME's been around for as long as I can remember

Guess it's GameStop, Tesco or Argos for me to pick up stuff now, but GAME was always great for Strategy Guides, Collectors Editions and whatnot.

TESCO!! I am in Naas and Tesco is the most expensive place to buy games. The exception being the special new release promotions which are generally great.
Smyths are the best value....

Procrastastudy

robinph wrote: »

Are you trying to claim that Scotland is not part of the UK? Can't quite figure out your point.

No and wont be answering anymore questions on this on this thread PM me or start a question in the Legal discussion forum if you'd like to tease out the finer points of the name of the state and whether it requires the government type suffix - they enjoy flaming me there so it should be fun.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

TESCO!! I am in Naas and Tesco is the most expensive place to buy games. The exception being the special new release promotions which are generally great.
Smyths are the best value....

I was in Tesco today and their prices for new releases beat everywhere else around. 25 euro for Syndicate amongst others.

aN.Droid

Deleted User wrote: »

I was in Tesco today and their prices for new releases beat everywhere else around. 25 euro for Syndicate amongst others.

60 euro for ssx!

Procrastastudy

Limericks wrote: »

60 euro for ssx!

I misread that thought it wasnt a bad deal for a minute.

cloud493

Tesco has syndicate for 25 quid? :eek: is that instore, on console?

WildCardDoW

Syndicate is on sale in Smyths, €34.99, and rubbish to be fair. :P

Grumpypants

A lot of EA games are down to 34.99 right now. I saw Syndicate, reckoning, mass effect 3 all for 34.99 in xtravision.

WildCardDoW

Yeah EA do it every summer, or more or less with every title. Watch Tiger Woods 13 and SSX two months from now drop in price fairly quickly for a few weeks.

Suggests to me most publishers inflate their RRP on purpose.

Pacing Mule

Just a thought for Game employees here.

If I understand it correctly:

Game went into administration and appointed pricewaterhousecoopers as administrators. The administrators having evaluated the business and in full control of the business then "shafted" the Irish staff.

Why not target them for protest ? They have Irish offices here. Sitting in behind closed doors in the shopping centre isn't going to cause them half as much hassle as being camped in front of their offices highlighting the issue.

Their locations in Ireland ...

http://www.pwc.com/ie/en/our-offices/index.jhtml

Cuddlesworth

Pageant Messiah wrote: »

Just a thought for Game employees here.

If I understand it correctly:

Game went into administration and appointed pricewaterhousecoopers as administrators. The administrators having evaluated the business and in full control of the business then "shafted" the Irish staff.

Why not target them for protest ? They have Irish offices here. Sitting in behind closed doors in the shopping centre isn't going to cause them half as much hassle as being camped in front of their offices highlighting the issue.

Their locations in Ireland ...

http://www.pwc.com/ie/en/our-offices/index.jhtml

That would achieve nothing. If game UK cleared the Irish operations bank accounts just before closing up shop, there was nothing the Irish PWC operation could do.

This whole situation is a clear failure of European law and GAME should be liable for all depths while still in operation within Europe.

On a side note, I don't think Game really give two ****s if the new stock remains in Ireland. It was almost certainly bought on credit and now belongs to the publishers. Employees should hold onto the 2nd hand stock though until they get paid. Once they let that leave the country they won't see a penny.

VinLieger

Cuddlesworth wrote: »

That would achieve nothing. If game UK cleared the Irish operations bank accounts just before closing up shop, there was nothing the Irish PWC operation could do.

This whole situation is a clear failure of European law and GAME should be liable for all depths while still in operation within Europe.

On a side note, I don't think Game really give two ****s if the new stock remains in Ireland. It was almost certainly bought on credit and now belongs to the publishers. Employees should hold onto the 2nd hand stock though until they get paid. Once they let that leave the country they won't see a penny.

Exactly once the stock leaves the country they have nothing, also occupying the stores will piss off PWC way more than protesting in front of their building which would achieve absolutely nothing

Pacing Mule

VinLieger wrote: »

Exactly once the stock leaves the country they have nothing, also occupying the stores will piss off PWC way more than protesting in front of their building which would achieve absolutely nothing

I disagree.

I'm not saying to do that as a substitute for holding the stock - I'm saying it would be extra pressure and more importantly public awareness of the issue. Hiding behind closed / boarded up doors as is the case in Blanch at the moment is not going to keep the issue in the forefront of the publics minds. PWC have a reputation to uphold too and highlighting their treatment and indeed incompetence (sending Irish staff UK government leaflets etc) is IMO worthwhile.

Procrastastudy

Out of interest has PWC Ireland even been apointed? Wouldn't be the first time someone in GAME needed a big map put in front of them to show them the difference between Ireland and the UK...

Found memories of disciplinaries...

Notorious

GCDLawstudent wrote: »

Out of interest has PWC Ireland even been apointed? Wouldn't be the first time someone in GAME needed a big map put in front of them to show them the difference between Ireland and the UK...

Found memories of disciplinaries...

Initially there was no Irish administrator appointed. Game staff had to point out to Game that we are in fact separate from the UK, and we were appointed an Irish administrator.

Pacing Mule

Notorious wrote: »

Initially there was no Irish administrator appointed. Game staff had to point out to Game that we are in fact separate from the UK, and we were appointed an Irish administrator.

Shambolic doesn't begin to describe it. :rolleyes:

cloud493

Wish they were open today. I was in blanchards town today, wish there was more selection of game shops.

RobertFoster

cloud493 wrote: »

Wish they were open today. I was in blanchards town today, wish there was more selection of game shops.

Blanchardstown has a good selection of shops where you can buy games tbh. HMV, GameStop, PC World/Currys, Xtravision, Smyths, Harvey Norman, and Argos. Sure, some of the shops are on the outskirts of the centre, you just have to walk a little further now that Zavvi/Virgin and GAME are gone.