A very dangerous situation has developed at Irish Ferries where management and unions are locked in a struggle of wills over the outsourcing of employment to cheaper EU countries. The dispute has a significance that goes well beyond the jobs of 543 Irish seafaring staff. It threatens the capacity of industry to import and to export goods in one of the most open economies in the world. It raises the prospect of the widespread displacement of Irish workers by cheap foreign labour. And it places the future of a new social partnership agreement in doubt.
The latest development in the Irish Ferries dispute saw the Labour Court come down firmly on the side of the trade unions Siptu and of the Seamen's Union of Ireland. It recommended that an agreement between unions and management should run its course until 2007 unless it was renegotiated voluntarily. And it ruled that the current pay and conditions of union members should continue to apply. The unilateral breaching of such agreements, it observed, would make the conduct of orderly industrial relations significantly more difficult.
In making its finding, the Labour Court will have taken into account the profitability of Irish Ferries and the projection that it will remain in the black until at least 2008. Time enough, it would seem, to renegotiate employment conditions. But management took a different view. Having outsourced employment on its French shipping routes successfully last year and increased profitability greatly, it was determined to extend the practice to the Irish Sea. During the summer - and without consultation - it offered voluntary redundancy, or reduced pay and inferior conditions, to 543 of its staff members.
The development was rejected by the trade unions and sharply criticised by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern. In spite of that, management at Irish Ferries persevered and later announced that up to 90 per cent of the workers had accepted the redundancy offer. Last Monday, in response to the Labour Court, it said this outcome made it impossible to accept and implement its recommendation. And a statement to the Stock Exchange emphasised the company's fiduciary responsibility to its shareholders.
This is so much blather. The shareholding owners of the company were not consulted about outsourcing on the Irish Sea routes. It was a management decision. And the chief executive, Eamon Rothwell, appears reluctant to change his mind. Good industrial relations are vital to the long-term profitability of any company. Management and unions should get out of their respective trenches. The high take-up of the redundancy package suggests that the unions may have embarked on a campaign which can deliver them a pyrrhic victory only. But public opinion can make or break a company. Irish Ferries should bear that in mind.
The Taoiseach, in the Dáil yesterday, expressed great concern and urged the company to resolve the dispute through negotiation with the trade unions. It behoves the company and the unions to resolve this situation for the sake of social partnership and the economy.