A new initiative to resolve the dispute at Irish Ferries is to start today following an intervention by the National Implementation Body.
An NIB proposal that interlocutors nominated by employers and unions be appointed to explore the possibility of a resolution was accepted last night by both sides in the dispute.
The company's decision to lay off up to 543 unionised seafarers and replace them with migrant workers on €3.60 an hour has placed the future of social partnership under threat.
Unions say they will not enter talks on a successor to Sustaining Progress in the absence of specific commitments from the Government on measures to prevent exploitation of workers.
Their stance arose directly as a result of the Irish Ferries controversy.
Two interlocutors are to act for each side, under the new NIB initiative. Two senior Siptu officials, vice-president Brendan Hayes and Dublin regional secretary Patricia King, have been appointed by the union side.
It is understood that Brendan McGinty, director of industrial relations with Ibec, is to be one of the two employers' representatives involved. The four people appointed are to begin discussions immediately.
Meanwhile, the Government says it will "carefully consider" any new proposals to introduce EU-wide minimum employment standards for seafarers.
Unions have criticised the Government for its opposition to a draft EU ferries directive which, they claim, could have prevented the Irish Ferries controversy from developing.
The directive was withdrawn by the European Commission in August last year, after six years of debate, in the face of opposition from a number of member states including Ireland.
The aim of the directive was to combat "social dumping" in the ferries sector. If implemented, it would have imposed minimum standards for seafarers under headings including pay, working periods, overtime, health and safety and equal treatment for men and women.
A Department of the Marine spokesman said a majority of member states had had reservations about aspects of the draft ferries directive.
However, should the Commission reintroduce a proposal for a directive, it would be given very careful consideration, "both in relation to the protection of seafarers' labour conditions and in relation to our peripherality and competitiveness concerns".
