Irish Ferries services to France face the threat of further disruption following a protest yesterday at Roscoff which left passengers trapped on board a ship for eight hours.
Members of Irish, British and French seafaring unions blocked a ramp with pallets and skips to prevent the MV Normandy from docking and discharging its 772 passengers.
The action, which followed a similar protest at Cherbourg last month, was over Irish Ferries' use of an outsourced crew on the Bahamas-registered vessel.
Passengers were finally
allowed to leave the ship at about 6pm Irish time, eight hours after they had been due to disembark.
An Irish Ferries spokesman saidt the ferry carrying around 850 passengers would be leaving Roscoff last night and would be docking in Rosslare this afternoon. Union leaders had said they had allowed the vessel to dock on condition that it would return without passengers, but the company denied this.
A spokesman said the ship would leave the berth temporarily to allow two other ferry companies to use it, but would return to collect its Rosslare-bound passengers. It was expected to sail at about 11pm, he said, four hours behind schedule.
Yesterday's protest was the latest in an increasingly bitter dispute over Irish Ferries' use of hired-in agency crew on the Normandy. International Transport Federation (ITF) official Tony Ayton, who took part in the protest, claimed crew members on the ship were paid an average of €3.50 an hour, less than half the Irish minimum wage, and worked an 84-hour week.
Irish Ferries responded that the workers were paid "ITF rates" and emphasised that all of the crew were EU nationals, mainly from the Baltic states.
This was described as "disingenuous" by Mr Ayton, who said there was no such thing as a uniform ITF pay rate. "Obviously ITF rates in Indonesia are not meant to be transported to this part of the world," he said. The company, however, said 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".
Mr Ayton said members of ITF-affiliated unions, including Siptu, had taken part in the protest.
He said he was sorry that passengers who "desperately need to disembark" had been prevented from doing so, but defended the action.
"The ship is operating under a flag of convenience; it's got a low-pay policy. It would be unlikely the passengers were unaware that the ship is at the centre of a dispute," he said.
Irish Ferries said the action had made hostages of "innocent passengers". Passengers were warned by the company on boarding the ship at Rosslare on Thursday that they could face disruption at Roscoff.
The company spokesman said he was not aware of any passengers opting not to board as a result of the warning.
