My travel over Easter is sorted, thank you. Train and boat to Dublin for me and two teenagers: £130 one way with Trainline, including a weird administration fee. So, you get to take as much luggage as you can physically carry and the chance to play cards on board. A day’s journey, but easy-peasy to book.
There are a couple of ferry companies waiting at Holyhead to take the passengers (and, invariably, a few dogs) on board. I’m not sure yet which is mine, but one will be Irish Ferries. What you’ll find aboard is that most of the crew are from abroad. They’re very pleasant and civil; most seem East European.
Which brings me to the vexed issue of P&O Ferries. You think it’s outrageous that the company sacked 800 crew from Dover, frogmarched them off the boats, and replaced them with substitutes paid an average of £5.50 an hour, rather than £8.91 minimum wage?
So do I. So does everyone. But we have in fact been here before — in 2005, when Irish Ferries did exactly the same: sacked their crews and replaced them with agency staff from abroad. There was a terrific fuss, but they got away with it. The upshot is that on cross-Channel trips, Irish Ferries can undercut the competition, including from P&O. For a family travelling by car from Dover to Calais in April, Irish Ferries were charging £135; P&O, £175. Guess which most families will go for?
That’s why a Commons debate on Wednesday is so important. MPs will consider whether to oblige all companies operating out of UK ports to pay the minimum wage. If the bill is passed, companies will have to get a cost advantage over the competition from some other way than paying rubbish wages.It is an overdue measure. Yes, people wanting to travel abroad by boat — the likes of me — will have to pay more. But cheap travel isn’t a human right; a decent wage is. Most of us are broke right now, but we must not underpay our way out of the cost of living crisis.
It’s the same with many goods and services. You care about animal welfare and British dairy farmers? Lovely; let’s pay an extra 10p for a litre of milk then. And when it comes to my ferry ticket, the cost of decent wages for the workers may be what...£10? £20? But it’s worth it. If we care about the 800 workers as much as we say we do, it is up to us to pay the price.
