Labour Court says Irish Ferries should honour agreement

THE Labour Court has recommended that Irish Ferries, which is trying to replace more than 500 Irish staff with cheaper foreign workers, should honour its current agreement with SIPTU.

The company wanted to outsource labour on its Irish Sea vessels in order to lower costs by €15 million a year.

But the union argued that this was in breach of the three-year agreement on employees’ pay, terms and conditions reached between the two sides in June 2004.