Irish Ferries begins talks, 450 reinstated

Talks on the future of Irish Ferries are due to begin at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) this morning following the company's decision to reinstate the 450 staff laid off earlier this week.

Normal scheduled sailings will resume today after four days of disruption when only one of the company's four vessels, the MV Ulysses which runs from Dublin to Holyhead, was in operation.

Staff began returning to work yesterday morning after the two unions involved, SIPTU and the Seamen's Union of Ireland (SUI), agreed to engage in joint negotiations with the company at the LRC.

The dispute centres around the company's plan to make 52 staff redundant as part of a drive to achieve savings of €3.4 million a year. Management maintains the cuts are essential to the competitiveness of the company. The SUI had refused to participate in joint negotiations with SIPTU. However, it agreed to come to the table after a seven-hour meeting at the LRC on Thursday night.

The SUI, which represents more than two-thirds of the 777 sea-going staff, said it agreed to talks on the basis of a guarantee from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions that there would be no separate deals between Irish Ferries and SIPTU.

"We have been guaranteed by the ICTU that we will have full disclosure on all sections of the discussions.

"There has been a problem of mistrust, but we have been assured that private deals will not be done," SUI general secretary, Mr Robert Carrick, said.

While he did not wish to pre-empt today's talks, Mr Carrick said the company had never mentioned a figure of 52 redundancies to the SUI and he had learned of the proposal through the media.

The company is willing to consider proposals from either union to make the annual €3.4 million saving without the 52 redundancies, Irish Ferries' human resources director, Mr Alf McGrath, said.

Irish Ferries claims the cost base on its vessels is more than 30 per cent out of line with those of its main competitor, Stena Line, and even more out of line with other competing carriers.

"If they can propose alternatives to achieve the cost cuts, we would be constrained to accepting that.

"The composition of the cuts is not as important as the actual sum."

The LRC talks were scheduled to continue every day next week, if it proved necessary, Mr McGrath said, adding that he was glad the unions had accepted the Labour Court recommendation to take part in joint discussions.