Unions at Irish Ferries won a huge victory, but will the Taoiseach back them fully now? asks Chris Dooley
Irish Ferries' decision to immediately reject yesterday's Labour Court recommendations on its outsourcing plan places the Taoiseach in a difficult position. Mr Ahern has more than once condemned the company over its plan to lay off up to 543 unionised seafarers and replace them with cheaper labour from eastern Europe.
Unions will now demand that his strong words be followed by Government action to prevent the company from proceeding with its plan. If the Government fails to act, the curtain is likely to close on 18 years of social partnership.
The two recommendations issued by the court - one in respect of Siptu and the other the Seamen's Union of Ireland (SUI) - are a model of clarity and decisiveness. In essence, the court told the company it is not entitled to proceed with its plan to outsource employment on its Irish Sea routes.
In the recommendation dealing with Siptu, the court reminded the company that it had concluded an agreement with the unions on the pay and conditions of seafarers as recently as June 2004.
That deal was due to run until 2007. If the company wished to change its terms, said the court, it would have to go back to the unions to renegotiate.
The court went further, pointing to the problems that would ensue if other companies were to adopt an Irish Ferries-style approach to industrial relations. "During the course of any collective agreement circumstances may change which makes it more or less attractive, to one or other of the parties, than was originally anticipated," it said.
"Nevertheless this could not relieve either party from the obligation to honour the agreement for its duration or until it is voluntarily renegotiated. Were it otherwise, the conduct of orderly industrial relations would be made significantly more difficult."
The recommendation in regard to the SUI was no less decisive. The only request made to the court by this union was that members who wished to stay at the company should retain their existing pay and conditions.
Irish Ferries has offered its seafarers the choice of redundancy or continued employment on inferior terms to those they currently enjoy. The court simply recommended that the SUI claim be conceded.
In industrial relations terms, then, the dispute at Irish Ferries could be said to have been resoundingly concluded in the unions' favour.
By rejecting the recommendations, however, the company has immediately diverted the spotlight back on to the Government, and the Taoiseach in particular.
Mr Ahern has already failed with one bid to lure unions into talks on a a new partnership agreement.
He told the Irish Congress of Trade Unions last month that the Government was prepared a deliver a range of measures to combat displacement of jobs and exploitation of workers.
Unions, however, decided to seek more specific guarantees in advance before agreeing to enter talks, which had been due to begin this week.
Many of the measures being sought, such as a big increase in the number of labour inspectors, could be implemented by the Government without regard to the situation at Irish Ferries.
But it seems inconceivable that unions, and Siptu in particular, could participate in partnership talks if Irish Ferries is allowed to continue unchecked with its plans.
It is not at all clear, however, that the Government has the power to make the company back down.
Questions to the Taoiseach and Ministers in the Dáil on the issue have drawn responses betraying increasing doubt about the scope for Government action.
Various options, such as the possibility of withholding redundancy payments from the company or preventing it from reflagging its vessels, have been explored.
At present the company's Irish Sea ships are registered in Ireland, which means its seafarers are protected by Irish employment legislation including the minimum wage.
By reflagging, or registering the ships to a state with less stringent employment laws, the company could implement its plan to source agency seafarers on hourly pay of €3.60. However, pressed on the matter by Opposition TDs on October 26th, for example, Mr Ahern told the Dáil it would be "extremely difficult to deal with the issue of reflagging in both Irish law and international law".
That had been the legal advice received, he said. "I wish there was an easy solution to this issue, but there does not seem to be."
Speaking in the Dáil a week later, Minister of State for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen appeared even less optimistic than the Taoiseach that anything meaningful could be done.
Legal advice had been taken on a range of options, he said, but there was no easy way to address the difficulties. "Most of the issues in question arise in the area of international maritime law in respect of which this country cannot unilaterally make changes."
Others disagree. The Labour Party, for example, has just published a Bill designed to restrict the circumstances in which an Irish-registered vessel could be reflagged to another country. Mr Ahern says he has been advised that such a measure would be unconstitutional.
Nevertheless, it is clear that the Government is already taking steps to hinder implementation of the company's plan where possible.
Its application to have its Irish Sea vessels reregistered to Cyprus has been turned down by the Department of the Marine, on the advice of the Attorney General.
The department said yesterday it had sought information from the company on the extent to which the ships would be managed and their operations directed and controlled from within Cyprus.
As this information was not forthcoming, it had refused the application. But it was open to the company to re-apply, a spokesman said.
A battle of wills between the Government and the former State-owned company has clearly begun. The outcome will have far-reaching consequences, not least for the social partnership process that Mr Ahern holds dear.
