Rabbitte's warning over support for ferry firm's jobs axe
Support from employers body IBEC for 500 job losses at Irish Ferries could damage the fabric of social partnership between workers and their bosses, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte warned today.
Mr Rabbitte also told Siptu’s national conference in Cork that the Turkish Gama firm continues to win new Government contracts despite its record of abusing its employees.
Speaking about the ’scandal’ of Irish Ferries, former union official Mr Rabbitte said: “The prospect of a company essentially destroying 500 well paid jobs and replacing them with greatly inferior pay and conditions is the direct opposite of moving to a high value-added economy.
“It is nothing less than a disgrace, and it simply cannot be tolerated. If this kind of race to the bottom can be sponsored by IBEC it will difficult to sustain the practice of social partnership.”
Management and workers at Irish Ferries have been locked in a long-running dispute over the company’s plan to lay off around 550 seafaring staff and replace them with cheaper overseas labour.
Earlier this week IBEC director general Turlough O’Sullivan blamed unions at Irish Ferries for “mucking around” the company for several years over cost-cutting plans.
But Dublin South-West TD Mr Rabbitte said Irish Ferries was the second example of ’social dumping’ this year after the scandal involving Gama workers.
Earlier this year hundreds of Gama workers went on strike after they claimed management had withheld wages and lodged them in foreign bank accounts without their knowledge.
“The outrageous treatment by Gama construction of its employees is a clear case in point,” he said.
“This is a company that was invited to this country by the Government, and which continues to receive new Government contracts, despite its appalling record of abusing its employees.
“This same Government has consistently, and over a long period, refused to develop an adequate labour inspectorate.
“We have more dog wardens than labour inspectors. Such is the legacy of eight years of government by a so-called socialist Taoiseach.”
Mr Rabbitte also said he was very concerned about profiteering in the construction sector, and how collective agreements are being undercut by contractors employing non-national labour.
“As a country, we cannot allow this kind of profiteering,” he said.
“Apart from the implications for Irish workers, it can also lead to the rise of tension being domestic and foreign workers.
“One in eight people in Ireland now works in the construction sector. We simply cannot afford to ignore the evidence of maltreatment of workers in this vital sector.”
The Labour leader also said Ireland must develop a high skilled, high value-added economy so that it doesn’t lose international competitiveness.
