Some 450 crew members at Irish Ferries have temporarily been laid off in a dispute over cost-cutting.
The company issued a statement today, blaming the layoffs on the refusal by the Seamen's Union of Ireland (SUI) to negotiate jointly with the other union at Irish Ferries, SIPTU.
The company is seeking over 50 redundancies and an increase in officers' time at sea as part of a €3.4 million cost-cutting plan. Irish Ferries says it needs to cut operating costs to bring the company in line with competitors.
Discussions have been ongoing since the middle of last year, but talks at the Labour Court broke up last month with the company saying it could not deal with unions separately.
The Labour Court recommended the SUI enter negotiations jointly with SIPTU but the union refused, saying it has negotiated separately for the past 14 years. It announced it was balloting members on industrial action over the issue yesterday.