The joint liquidators of Debenhams Ireland, KPMG, have dismissed suggestions that any concessions have been made to former workers, or that any further meetings with them are planned.
The comments come as workers spent their 174th day on the picket line in pursuit of better redundancy payments, after the company collapsed into insolvency earlier this year with the loss of around 1,000 jobs.
This evening, former employees are continuing their occupation of the Debenhams store in Co Waterford, which commenced on Monday.
Also today, workers prevented a truck from removing stock from the outlet in Tallaght, Dublin.
Earlier, photographs were published on social media showing a member of the KPMG insolvency team in the Waterford premises talking to former employees occupying the building.
Shop steward Jane Crowe said KPMG had wanted to know what it would take to end the sit-in, and that protestors had demanded talks involving officials of their union Mandate, shop stewards, KPMG and the government "with everything resolved".
However, in a statement issued to RTÉ this evening, a spokesperson for KPMG said: "A member of the liquidators team visited the staff in Waterford today solely to ascertain when they intend to leave the store. No concessions were made and no meetings are planned."
Mandate and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions have mounted a political campaign seeking to have the terms of the 2016 Duffy-Cahill report passed into law, in order to ensure better employment and redundancy rights for workers where a company becomes insolvent.
They are also seeking four weeks of redundancy pay per year of service, which was agreed in a 2016 collective agreement – rather than the two weeks statutory redundancy which is their minimum entitlement under current law now that Debenhams Ireland is in liquidation.
For the last 174 days, workers have picketed all 11 stores around the country to prevent the removal of stock, which they insist should be applied for enhanced redundancy payments.
However, liquidators Andrew O'Leary and Kieran Wallace insist that the Irish company is insolvent, and that the UK parent is also on the brink of insolvency.
They say that the stock is worth less than the staff have estimated, and much of it is actually owned by concession-holders who operated through the Debenhams stores.
The liquidators also insist that the Debenhams online operation, which workers claim is worth €30m, is owned by the separate UK entity.
A potential deal that would have given an additional sum of around €1m in exchange for releasing the stock was rejected by workers, arguing it was completely inadequate. KPMG then withdrew the offer.
Some sources have queried whether KPMG will eventually take the dispute to the courts in order to be able to complete the liquidation.
They have previously confirmed that the workers' protest campaign is delaying the liquidation and reducing the value of the stock for distribution to all creditors, including the workers, the Revenue Commissioners and local authorities.
