Debenhams workers will picket 11 stores across the country at noon today to protest the planned liquidation of the retailer's Irish arm.
Trade Union Mandate says over 1,000 people have lost their jobs and have been told Debenhams has not enough assets to fund an agreed redundancy deal.
Protests will take place in Waterford, Tralee, Limerick, Galway, Cork, Kildare and at four locations in Dublin.
Valerie Conlon is the shop steward at Debenhams on Patrick Street in Cork.
She says she and over 1,000 of her colleagues do not deserve to be on the dole queue after years of service.
"We are all finding it very hard," Ms Conlon said.
"It's going to be very difficult for all of us and at the end of the day none of us were working for the good of the health.
"90% of the people that were working were working because they had to work because they have mortgages, they have families.
"We still want to work. We were hard workers. It's very hard to put ourselves back out there again."
