BELEAGUERED Irish Ferries has applied to register its fleet under the Cyprus flag, amid accusations it is trying to replace its Irish workers with cheaper labour.
Sergios Sergiou, Director of the Cyprus Merchant Shipping Department, yesterday confirmed that Irish Ferries had applied to register its vessels under the Cyprus flag, which is an open registry and has the third largest fleet in the EU after Greece and Malta.
“We have had the application for a few weeks now,” Sergiou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday. “They applied to us because they are having some problems in Ireland.”
Sergiou said the move would involve two to three vessels, if Irish Ferries manages to secure permission from the Irish government. “They are waiting for that and we are ready to register the ships,” he added. “It will take no time at all once we have the necessary documents.”
The Irish Ferries row has been raging for weeks after the company said it had to bring in foreign staff as part of a cost-cutting drive to remain competitive. It had proposed hiring workers from Latvia at less than half the set Irish minimum wage of 7.65 euros, in a move that has been widely criticised by the Irish government.
Registering under another flag would assist the company in avoiding its minimum wage obligations in Ireland, critics say. Irish Ferries, which operate car ferries between Ireland, the UK and France, have rejected a non-binding Labour Court recommendation and pledged yesterday to press ahead to replace more than 500 employees, as Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney warned the company could collapse if an agreement was not reached soon with the unions.
“I very much regret what is happening – I think if people don’t see sense, there will be no Irish Ferries. The workers will lose out, the company will lose out and the entire country will lose out,” she told reporters in Dublin.
Irish Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the government must raise the issue at next Monday’s meeting of EU transport ministers, as plans to register the ships in Cyprus meant it had become an EU problem.
But according to reports in Ireland, the government cannot legally prevent the company registering in Cyprus. The Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, had refused the transfer application last week.
Irish Ferries had originally tried to register in the Bahamas, another open registry but chose Cyprus instead because the island was an EU country.
It is not known whether Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will raise the issue with President Tassos Papadopoulos, who is currently on a four-day visit to Dublin.
