Irish Ferries dispute - Row exposes widespread problem

Irish Ferries has presented its employees with an extraordinary predicament which, understandably, has led to threatened strike action over the company’s naked attempt to replace them with lower paid workers.

Because there are so many people involved - 543 workers - this situation has dramatically highlighted a general problem which has insidiously existed for some time and which the Government, employers and unions have chosen not to address properly.

This is the question of low pay which is undermining the minimum rate, a concept introduced to ensure that workers generally could at least expect to get a recognised official hourly rate.