The Joe Horgan Column
The Ferry across the Irish Sea was such a part of our lives, wasn’t it? All those coach journeys and then the smell of the ocean somewhere in Wales and the boarding of the boat and Ireland waiting. It was the start of summer or on the way back the end of summer as the harbour lights of Cork or Dublin receded and the life in Britain waited. The boat was such a part of it that getting on it and sailing away was like being in Ireland already. For many of us, the families of Irish emigrants, they were innocent days, long summers of innocence.
You couldn’t in all honesty get on the ferry now with the same innocence. Not so long ago it came to light that a Filipino hairdresser was employed on an Irish Ferries boat and getting paid z1.08 an hour for her 12-hour shift. One euro and eight cent. The company responded by asserting that this was an aberration rather than any indicator of the prevailing business culture. Was it?
Irish Ferries is now planning to operate its ships under ‘flags of convenience’ which means that these ferries will no longer fly the Irish flag but the flag of the Bahamas. One of their boats already does so. In the world of the market and the swirling world of business this kind of practice is not unusual, however much a figment of the imagination that the boats are Bahamian might be. Or in other words the flying of the flag of the Bahamas above the boats will be a lie. The reason for it will of course be financial, will be to sate the greed of its owners and executives. It will be part of the companies attempt to avoid the labour laws of Ireland. It will be part of what is called creative accounting and has even provoked Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to criticise them for ‘sharp practice’, though we can take it as read that the executives of that company will not find themselves out in the cold too long. Bertie, rest assured, is just making some politically astute noises.
The company, whilst still reporting healthy profits, now claims that it is not too far off going out of business and in response has introduced a new package for its workers. The new package carries with it such incentives as redundancy, 50 per cent cuts in pay and the removal of legal entitlements to annual leave or days off. The plan is to force out Irish labour and employ labour from eastern Europe, where recruitment has already begun, at around e3.50 an hour, for 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. That is less than half the minimum wage.
Here in Ireland this has caused something of a political stir, hence Bertie’s words. The company has taken these actions in direct opposition to its own commitments to government and its own labour agreements. Don’t be misled in to thinking they are unusual though. I know personally of a number of people who signed, as part of their employment, documents stating that they wished to retain the ‘right’ not to avail of such things as a set working week. That is to say that they would be expected to work all the hours god sends.
I know of others who have no guarantee of sick pay beyond a few days. These aren’t people in poorly-regulated jobs, but those at the top end of the economy, working for large corporations and that is what the sweaty armpit of the Celtic Tiger looks like once you start peering.
The chief executive of Irish Ferries’ parent company wrote an article in The Irish Times lauding and defending the company’s actions. It had such choice non-language as ‘lowering the labour cost base’ — which to you and I means cutting the wages of real people. He wrote of how the company’s actions were in line with at least part of the recommendations made by a firm of consultants, though admitted they had rejected another part of it. What he didn’t say was that this part of the report recommended, amongst other things, a five per cent salary cut for directors and senior managers.
So let us put this brave new Irish economy up to the spotlight and let us see how it works. Irish Ferries want to cut people’s wages and holidays. It wants to employ non-Irish labour because it can get away with paying them less and treating them worse. The chief executive, meanwhile, who was not shy about defending this, should not be shy either about us knowing that last year he earned e687,000. Now that is a hell of a long way from one euro and eight cent. But that is exactly just how it all works. |
