Siptu has served strike notice at Irish Ferries after the company today announced that it was seeking 543 redundancies in a move that led to widespread condemnation being directed at management.
The Labour Party, Sinn Féin and the Green Party condemned the offer of voluntary redundancy to the seafarers working the Holyhead and Pembroke services.
Siptu branch secretary Paul Smith said this evening that the union had no option given the company's out-of-hand rejection of the recommendations of an independent consultant's report on the future viability of the company.
Irish Ferries chief executive Eamonn Rothwell regretted the need to seek lay-offs saying the company could not compete with those operating on lower cost bases.
"If action isn't taken, Irish Ferries will go the way of B&I except, that this time, there'll be no bail-out by the Irish Government," he said.
Mr Smith rejected the assertion saying the move was a "lesson in corporate greed".
"We have already agreed to €3.5 million in cuts and the company is holding its market share, but it seems intent on using loopholes in the labour laws created by flags of convenience to recruit cheap labour abroad.
"Our own members are being offered redundancy or the choice of remaining in the company under draconian conditions with reduced pay rates and loss of leave days," Mr Smith said.
The company has already outsourced employment on its Rosslare to France service, a move which led to a strike by Siptu members last year. The vessel it uses on the route, the MV Normandy, has been reregistered in the Bahamas and its crew members, who are mainly from the Baltic states, are supplied by an external agency.
The International Transport Workers' Federation claimed recently that crew on the Normandy are paid an average of €3.50 an hour, less than half the Irish minimum wage, for an 84-hour week.
The company responded saaying that pay rates on the ship were equal to, or better than those "paid by other ship-owners against whom Irish Ferries are regularly obliged to compete".
The redundancy package comprises 8-weeks' pay per year of service, including statutory of two. However, it is only on the table if agreement is reached on the company's right to replace departing staff with crew from an agency.
Labour marine spokesperson Tommy Broughan said the move was "a black day both for Irish Ferries and for Irish labour standards in general". He said Minister for the Marine Noel Dempsey should intervene to save the jobs.
Sinn Féin's Arthur Morgan said the redundancy offer was "disgraceful" and referred to the controversies about working conditions aboard the MV Normandy,where, he said, conditions had "deteriorated sharply".
He called on Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin to make clear to the company that the exploitation of workers will not be tolerated.
Irish Ferries said in a statement it could not longer continue its operations because of high costs, competition from low-cost shipping firms and soaring fuel costs.
"Corrective action on costs is now required if Irish Ferries is to avoid becoming unprofitable," the statement said. "The operational context has deteriorated in 2005 with a 9 per cent fall in the Irish Sea Cars market and recent hikes in the cost of fuel (up 50 per cent in 2005 alone)."
Green Party spokesperson on the marine Eamon Ryan said fuel costs will continue to rise "unless the Government takes measures to provide Ireland with alternative, renewable energy sources."
The redunancies plan was an insult to both foreign workers and the existing workforce.