Departing Paddy Power staff with long service say redundancy amounts to ‘just one year’s pay’

Paddy Power workers leaving the chain following betting shop closures say the company is offering redundancy amounting to little more than the legal minimum.

The Republic’s biggest bookmaker, owned by global gambling giant Flutter Entertainment, is closing 21 betting shops around the State in a move affecting 78 staff.

Long-serving workers, who are opting to leave over taking posts elsewhere in the business, say Paddy Power is offering them “just one year’s pay” despite the fact that they have worked for the business for decades.

Several staff say the company is offering them two weeks’ pay per year of service, capped at €600 a week, the minimum required by Irish employment law, plus an ex-gratia payment that brings the total to one year’s salary.

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A worker who has spent most of their career with the company branded the payment “a disgrace”, saying it failed to recognise departing employees’ contribution over years of service, dating back to Paddy Power’s early days in many cases.

Staff say they queried the offer with the Workplace Relations Commission, which confirmed that the bookmaker was meeting legal requirements.

Personal circumstances, shop locations and other factors make redeployment unrealistic for some staff, workers say.

Longer-serving employees also have contracts entitling them to overtime for working late or on certain holidays. They maintain that redeployment could involve moving to new contracts that do not include these entitlements.

Paddy Power said the majority of staff in the shops earmarked for closure have been offered redeployment close to where they already work.

“However, the closures will unfortunately lead to a small number of job losses. Our affected colleagues have been offered redundancy packages beyond the statutory entitlement,” it said.

“In cases of exceptionally long service, where statutory payment would exceed company policy, our colleagues will receive their full statutory entitlement as well as an additional ex-gratia payment in recognition of their significant contribution to the company over many years,” a statement said.

The company added that it had contacted all affected staff and consultations were ongoing.

A number of Paddy Power shop staff are members of Mandate trade union. However, the organisation has not discussed the closures or redundancy terms with the bookmaker or its parent, Flutter.

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The Clonskeagh, Dublin-headquartered group announced the shop closures early this month.

Paddy Power will close bookies in Goatstown in Dublin, Dominick Street in Galway, Dillon’s Cross in Cork City and Skibbereen in west Cork.

In all, the group is closing nine premises in the capital while betting shops in counties Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford will also go.

The move will leave it with 230 shops in the Republic. Flutter maintains that it will continue to invest in retail and that it is growing its share of this business.

Flutter has said for some time that Irish betting shops were later to reopen after the pandemic and slower to recover.

The group earned close to €150 million profit after tax in the first six months of this year.