About 30 members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers held a demonstration in Portsmouth Harbour on Friday, calling on the ferry company to stop paying a £2.45 hourly wage and adopt the minimum living wage of £9.45 instead.
Condor have since said that the RMT’s claims only apply to around five per cent of their total 570 staff working on the company’s Goodwill and Clipper ships and their workers often chose to return to work for them rather than going elsewhere.
The business also says that wages only represent a small part of their workers’ reward packages, with en-suite accommodation, food, laundry facilities, uniform costs and life assurance all being provided to them free of charge.
Steve Todd, general secretary for the RMT, attended the protest and said that the union wanted to organise another event in Jersey.
‘About 30 people attended. It was a really successful day, but I think we can still do more and keep on going until we get some proper results,’ he said.
‘The next step is to organise something in Jersey.
‘I think we need to let Islanders know what is going on.
‘We just need to work out how to get there. I am not sure Condor would let us on their ferries.’
He added: ‘We had lots of people coming up to us and asking us what we were protesting against. We were not far from Condor’s offices too so I am sure they heard us.’
Condor has said that it would not be making any further comment on the matter after releasing a statement earlier this week.
