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Settlement agreed in Irish ferry slave wage wrangle
30 March 2005
An Irish ferry operator, slammed over its exploitation of a woman employee, after it was revealed she was being paid 1 euro (US$1.30) an hour, has agreed a settlement totalling 25,000 euros (US$32,500).
Salvacion Orge, a Filipina working as a beautician on board the Irish-flagged Isle of Inishmore, owned by Irish Ferries, was earning just €355 (US$453) a month. Her six-month contract stipulated that she work 12 hours a day with three days off a month; her other seafarer colleagues worked on alternate weeks.
Irish Ferries’ management claimed that Orge was not an employee but had been recruited through an international agency, CF Sharp Crew Management. ITF inspector Tony Ayton, in support of ITF affiliate the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (Siptu), which took up Orge’s case, challenged the agency. He reminded them that legislation in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, between which the ship operated, provided for a minimum wage to be paid to all workers, “irrespective of their nationality, class, creed or colour.”
Talks between Siptu and Irish Ferries on 29 March led to an agreement that will see Orge receive a 25,000 euros (US$32,500) lump sum. This is based on the rate for a catering rating on board the Isle of Inishmore, plus six months’ leave entitlement. She will also receive the costs of repatriation.
“Our initial plan was to have her work as an Irish Ferries employee, but due to psychological pressure she was not up to it after all that happened. However she has gone home to her family after only a week here with more than a 1,000 per cent more money than she had signed up for in her six month contract,” said Tony Ayton.
Siptu and the ITF are attempting to obtain a settlement for two other Filipino workers, Cynthia Arcilla and Jovita Corporal, who worked on board Irish Ferries’ Bahamas-flagged Normandy vessel. They were repatriated while docked in Cherbourg, France, with payment of little over a euro an hour.
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