ABOUT 30 managers of Eason & Son based in Cork and the west of Ireland last week passed a motion of no confidence in Conor Whelan as managing director.
The move follows almost 70 managers based mainly in Leinster passing a similar motion three weeks ago, amid fears that the country’s biggest bookseller may be planning to reduce their number.
The second meeting in Portlaoise, Co Laois, on Wednesday, was organised by Siptu, the trade union that represents management grade workers.
Eason lost €10m in its most recent accounts to January 31, 2010, paring back from €21m losses the previous year, as the group closed stores, wrote off investments and lost sales.
The retailer is understood to have no plans to introduce a group redundancy programme, but this has not eased fears of its managers.
Advertisement
“Conor Whelan and his management team have the support of the Eason board,” the company said. The group had no comment to make on the views of its shareholders.
The 125-year-old Eason group is majority controlled by five families who trace their roots back to the founder Charles Eason and in total there are 200 shareholders.
Whelan was a managing director of BWG Foods, the wholesaler to the Spar brand, before joining Eason in September 2009.
James Osborne, a former managing partner of A&L Goodbody solicitors, was appointed as its non-executive chairman last October.
Siptu organiser Graham Macken said: “We are hopeful the company will engage us.”
Advertisement
On Monday the group human resources manager with Eason, Tony Duggan, secured an interim High Court order restraining the company from removing him from his post, or appointing someone to a differently named position, which he claims is his.
His lawyers told the court that Eason had adopted the “extraordinary” position of denying Duggan was its group human resources manager, when two former managing directors of the company, Gordon Bolton and Basil McAllister, had submitted affidavits saying he was.
Duggan’s lawyers claimed his problems at Eason had only arisen after Whelan was appointed managing director.