Agreement in shipping dispute means return of sailings

A breakthrough has been made in the dispute at Irish Ferries with management saying that there will be a resumption of services on UK routes.

The Labour Relations Commission brokered the deal after almost 20 hours of talks which concluded in the early hours of Wednesday, December 14th.

The company will now be required to reflag its vessels but will need to pay minimum wage or more to its staff. The union has agreed to outsourcing but staff who do not want to take redundancy will remain on the same terms and conditions.

A binding legal agreement has been reached with the company being allowed to re-flag its ships abroad.

Irish Ferries had threatened to withdraw a significant part of a redundancy package on offer to existing crews if its three Irish sea vessels did not return to service.

Siptu official Paul Smith is expected to speak to some of the Isle of Inishmore officers, which has been moored at Pembroke for the last 21 days.

Siptu President Jack O'Connor said his union would be prepared to enter partnership talks if Irish Ferries addressed job displacement, exploitation and protection of employment standards.

The union said it had secured significant increases in the rates of pay proposed by the company bringing rates beyond the minimum wage.

The first service due back is the Swift Service, which is due to leave Dublin for Holyhead at 12.15pm on Wednesday.