Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
The owner of Irish Ferries, Irish Continental Group plc announced on 20 October 2004 that its Ferries Division is restructuring its services between Ireland and France - on the Rosslare to Cherbourg and Roscoff routes - in order to ‘reduce costs and maintain competitiveness'. Management have proposed 150 voluntary redundancies, and staffing on the Rosslare-France routes is to be transferred to a third party employment agency, the result being that ‘cheaper' crews will be employed on the routes from March 2005. According to the company, the action is being taken against a background in which the volume of cars carried on the Ireland/France route has fallen 7% this year compared with 2003. The company acknowledges that the decision is ‘a consequence of demand in the market place for lower fares, together with additional competition from sea and air carriers, in some cases State-assisted'. In relation to this, the company lodged a complaint with the European Commission last year on the basis that its main competitor on the French routes, Brittany Ferries, receives a subvention from the French Government. It says it does not receive any such subvention from the Irish Government, which places Irish Ferries at a competitive disadvantage. Unions at the company have announced that they will ballot their members for industrial action in protest at the proposals.
Eurofound (2004), Irish Ferries, Outsourcing in Ireland, factsheet number 60723, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/60723.
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