Bankruptcy
The workers have a month and 12 days of wages in arrears and on Monday night they received a message that the company was closing its doors yesterday, says a Portuguese employee.
Most of the employees of the Casa do Brill butchery chain were Portuguese, as were their loyal customers for charcuterie, meats and other products of Portuguese origin. The famous company that had seven stores open in Luxembourg closed its doors definitively on Tuesday, after 37 years of activity, claiming bankruptcy. The surprise was general.
Even the workers themselves were warned at the last minute. “On Monday, at 7:04 pm, the boss sent a message to the workers’ WhatsApp warning us that the next day, Tuesday, the company would close forever and that we would be without a job. It was like that, by message!”, told Contacto a Portuguese man who had worked at Casa do Brill for over 20 years.
Employees were also asked to work one or two more days “to get the stores all clean” and take care of the products. Along with the stores, all other services provided by the company, such as catering, foodtruck, virtual store were also closed.
“I am sad”
“Of course I am sad about this situation, I worked there for many years, but for me, the closure was not a total surprise. Deep down, I already foresaw that this could happen”, assumes this employee who is over 40 years old and who has worked almost half of his life at Casa do Brill.
But, as he is not a man to let sadness take over the situation, the worker has already reacted and went to the union to find out about his rights, this Wednesday afternoon. Especially because the employees were already in arrears with salaries: “They owe us the month of June and these 12 days of July”, he says.
Read more:All the taste of Portugal in Luxembourg
“The stores did not lose customers”
A situation that the Portuguese find incomprehensible, such as the closure of the company due to bankruptcy. “At least, on the part of the clientele, the stores never lost customers, they had as many as years ago”.
Casa do Brill advertised “offering the best Portuguese meats and charcuterie in Luxembourg” and was owned by a Luxembourgish family.
Vacation with a dark cloud
However, the holidays are at the door, and despite having unexpectedly become unemployed, he will not cancel the trip to Portugal, in August, as he already has “everything scheduled”. He knows, however, that the loss of his job will mark this vacation, but he will counteract the negative feelings with his eyes on the future, on the strong possibility of getting a new job.
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“Fortunately”, in two days the Portuguese already had some contacts: “from those who know me and know how I work, it is professional recognition”.
“I already have an idea where I’m going, but for now I want to know my rights and deal with everything before [de avançar para novo posto]”. First, you have to close this long chapter of your professional life.
