My dream’s shattered, says Filipino beautician

A FILIPINO woman staging a protest on an Irish Ferries vessel after being sacked said last night her dreams were shattered.

Beautician Salvacion Orge, earning slave wages of just over €1 per hour, revealed she was sending nearly 80% of her paltry income back to her family in the Philippines.

The 44-year-old woman said she was working to give her three children a safe future.

“I love my job,” she told TV3 News. “I want to send my children to school and help find them a job.

“Now I have lost my job and my dream is just a dream. How can I send them to school?”

Earning €354 a month aboard the ship, Ms Orge was only entitled to three days off every month.

Her contract, it emerged, was agreed with an overseas recruitment company.

Meanwhile, talks between Irish Ferries and SIPTU broke up yesterday without agreement on the issue of slave labour on ships. Talks are scheduled to resume aboard the Isle of Inishmore on Tuesday.

The company said yesterday it was not challenging the claims.

Irish Ferries human resources director Alf McGrath said: “I do not have the details of Salvacion Orge’s contract because it is a contract between herself and a contracting company.

“As far as I am concerned on the information provided, I am not challenging it.”

SIPTU claimed Ms Orge was hired by a recruitment agency to work on the Isle of Inishmore.

It is understood she was expected to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with just three days off a month. Ms Orge began working as a beautician on the ship on the Rosslare-Pembroke route.

However, the service which she was working on was closed down following queries about her wages.

She has remained on board the ship for the past three days and nights.

Mr McGrath said Ms Orge’s dilemma was a situation which should not have happened.

“It is an aberration, it is an error on our part,” he said. “In terms of the 1,600 employees we have seasonally and permanently, their rates of pay and conditions of those employees are the envy of every other shipping company in Britain and the world.”

Mr McGrath said that when the company became aware of the issue it immediately decided the situation was untenable.

It is believed that two other women from the Philippines, who the union has claimed were employed in similar circumstances, have been taken off another ferry and repatriated.

SIPTU branch secretary Paul Smyth said the union would fight for equal pay and conditions for Ms Orge.

“This woman is now a member of union and it is our intention to pursue hercase through all the means at our disposal,” said Mr Smyth.