Irish Ferries to lay off 170 more workers as Martin refuses to intervene
However, despite the serious implications for trade and exports, Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Micheál Martin yesterday refused to intervene.
Responding to opposition pressure to intervene yesterday, Mr Martin conceded the dispute was damaging to the Irish economy but said it would be inappropriate for him to intervene at this stage.
“Ultimately it remains the responsibility of the parties concerned to ensure that agreement is reached.
“The way to resolve this ultimately is going to have to be within the context of the industrial relations machinery. Ultimately that’s where this is going to end up,” he said.
“So I’m saying to both sides to stop the sparring. Get on with it and get into either the Labour Relations Commission or Labour Court and that’s the only way that this is going to be resolved.”
But an Irish Ferries spokesman last night said there was little chance of a breakthrough unless SIPTU called off the strike and entered negotiations. “They’ve got to call off the action before discussions can begin,” he said.
According to the spokesman, 170 workers were laid off on Monday, 130 yesterday and a further 170 will be laid off today.
“We’re looking at a situation now where, within 48 hours of the strike taking place, one-third of the company’s 1,200 staff have been laid off,” he said.
But SIPTU official Paul Smyth again accused the company of locking out staff and said up to 800 staff had now been laid off.
He said SIPTU would not enter talks as long as a cessation of industrial action was a precondition.
“Our position has always been that this is only going to be resolved by talking. However the company has always set preconditions on talking,” he said.
Meanwhile Labour’s Tommy Broughan yesterday criticised the management’s hard-line stance.
“It’s only a few months ago, after all, that the chief executive Eamon Rothwell gave himself a bonus of over €500,000 personally as a result of the great profits that were being earned on the four main ships of this line,” he said.
