Reaction: The employers group Ibec has called for a new partnership deal with the trade union movement despite the escalating Irish Ferries dispute.
In a statement yesterday, Ibec said the circumstances in the dispute were "unique to the shipping industry and have no direct relevance to companies operating in and employing people in this jurisdiction.
"Employers here are governed by a substantial body of protective legislation and the second highest national minimum wage in the EU."
It added: "Extension of the Irish Ferries model into the broader economy, ignoring these standards and involving direct replacement of Irish workers by cheaper foreign labour is therefore not something that is desirable or practicable."
Ibec, of which Irish Ferries is a member, added that it agreed with comments yesterday by Siptu president Jack O'Connor to the effect that "any one dispute should not decide the future of social partnership".
However, Mr O'Connor also said it was difficult to see how social partnership could survive if the Government failed to address the issues at the centre of the dispute, namely "job displacement, exploitation and protection of employment standards".
Mr O'Connor said: "The Irish Ferries dispute is a defining moment in the relations between employers and workers in this country.
"It is a moment which challenges everyone, on all sides, to declare on the side of decency, social dialogue and constructive engagement or on the side of thuggery, brutality and the law of the jungle."
Meanwhile, Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has written to the Taoiseach asking for the Government to support a private members' bill which would restrict the circumstances under which an Irish-registered vessel could be re-registered in another country.
Mr Rabbitte said an early enactment of the legislation would "not only prevent the attempts by Irish Ferries to re-register their vessels with a view to circumventing Irish labour law but would also reassure workers in other sectors that your government was serious about delivering on its promise to prevent a 'race to the bottom'."
Mr Rabbitte also suggested that Irish Ferries was spurred into taking its action after Mr Ahern said last Wednesday that the Government could do no more in the situation. "It seems to me that despite all your sympathetic words for the workers, this was a message - intentionally or otherwise - to the company to go ahead with their plans," he wrote.
"The tactics adopted by Irish Ferries management, including an SAS-type attempted takeover of two vessels in ports in Wales, is something we might have expected to see in the early part of the last century but surely have no role to play in a modern industrial relations regime," Mr Rabbitte wrote.