Liffey Valley staff gathered outside the shopping centre this afternoon to protest the new paid parking system being introduced on Monday.
Part of the car park will be designated for employees, with charges of €2.50 per day, working out at approximately approximately €600 per year for staff who work fulltime. However staff fear there is no guarantee that they will get a parking space in this designated area and will be forced to park in the customer area and pay up to €12.50 per day.
Dozens of employees gathered outside the shopping centre this afternoon and called for the staff parking charges to be scrapped. Workers marched around chanting "no way, we won't pay".
Read more: Liffey Valley: Everything you need to know as car park charges to be introduced next week
One employee told Dublin Live that she is "very upset" about how staff are being treated. She said: "It's going to be €2.50 per day which works out at around €600, €650 a year if you're full time. That's a huge chunk of your wages.
"It's another expense on top of the bills and energy increases."
Liffey Valley's new paid parking management system is called Park Easy, and it will be a ticketless and cashless system, scanning a customer's car registration number when they drive into the car park. Customers who stay 0-3 hours will have to pay €2.50, while 3-4 hours costs €5.00, 4-5 hours is €7.50, 5-6 hours is €10.00 and 6-7 hours is €12.50 (Max Day Rate) There is a flat rate evening charge of €2.50 between the hours of 6pm - 8am.
A spokeswoman for Liffey Valley said that the new BusConnects routes and new walking/cycling infrastructure will give staff and customers more ways to travel to the shopping centre. She said: "The Liffey Valley owners with the National Transport Authority have invested €30m to enhance parking and public transport facilities at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre so that our customers have a much-improved experience and more transports options when visiting the Centre.
"These changes are in keeping with our sustainability agenda and National and Local Authority Transport policies regarding modal shift to more sustainable modes of transport. A new BusConnects interchange and new and improved lighting, walkways, and cycle lanes as well as secure cycle parking will give both retailer staff and customers more options to travel to the Centre.
"There has already been a significant increase in the provision of public transport services to the Centre with further service increases being rolled out from Sunday 16 October and additional services being provided in early 2023 when the new BusConnects interchange is open which will see public transport connections to the Centre increase by 50%."
The spokeswoman added that Liffey Valley "appreciates that a change to a practice that has existed for 24 years is difficult for all our stakeholders and especially for staff and we acknowledge the important contribution retailer staff have and continue to make to the overall success of the Centre".
"Notwithstanding this situation, we understand that traveling to work by car may still be the only option for some and we are keen to work with all stakeholders to ensure people understand their options and to assist them in selecting the most appropriate option that is relevant to their situation," she said. "In this regard, we are providing designated parking facilities for staff at a substantially discounted rate of €2.50 per trip.
"Construction work on the project has created c.100 jobs over the last year and implementation of these changes will see 36 new jobs created at the Centre in the provision of end-to-end parking management services. There has been and continues to be extensive communication regarding these changes with all our stakeholders including with our retailers who employ the staff.
"It is largely understood and accepted that the delivery of enhanced customer experience will ultimately benefit these businesses and their staff. We are confident that the changes when implemented from Monday 17 October will result in a much-improved parking experience for our customers, retailers, and retail staff as we expect that due to the new management system parkers who are not either visiting or working for retailers in the Centre will no longer avail of our parking facilities.
"It is also important to note that the changes being implemented are very much in keeping with National and Local Authority Transport policies which have been democratically adopted by elected members at both local and national level.
"Finally, we would like to point out that weekend periods at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre are particularly busy and it is essential for customers and retailer staff that that the public be allowed uninterrupted access and exit to and from the Centre as normal."
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