A claim by Irish Ferries that it has "no choice" but to outsource employment on its Irish Sea operations was challenged yesterday by Siptu.
The union claimed that full-page advertisements placed in national newspapers by the company yesterday were a combination of half-truths and statements that were misleading or "simply wrong".
The two sides are to attend the Labour Court on Monday to discuss the dispute over the company's plan to replace up to 540 unionised seafarers with cheaper, agency-supplied labour.
In the advertisements, Irish Ferries said the market for car ferries was in decline and 95 per cent of its competitors were already doing what the company was proposing.
Outsourcing, it said, was the only way to achieve the savings required. Siptu and the Seamen's Union of Ireland had proposed no workable alternative.
The company, which has been accused of planning to exploit workers by paying them €3.60 an hour, defended the conditions under which agency workers would be employed.
"Given that all will live on board with accommodation, food, travel and other living expenses paid for, coupled with favourable income tax treatment, even the lowest-paid will be financially better off than those working and living in Ireland for the minimum wage."
In a point-for-point challenge to the advertisement, Siptu official Paul Smyth said it was misleading to claim that the market for car ferries was in decline.
"While passenger numbers are down, freight business is substantially up and this more than compensates for any reduction in passenger numbers."
It was a "half-truth", he claimed, to suggest that competitors were already doing what Irish Ferries proposed.
It was not true, he said, that outsourcing was the only way the company could achieve the savings it needed.
"To suggest that workers' wages are being augmented by allowing them to live and sleep on board a boat is shameful," Mr Smyth added.