Social dumping: Brittany Ferries accused of double-talk

Among the crew of the Barfleur , the news, announced at the end of June, came as a shock. As every year, this ship of the French company Brittany Ferries will remain at the dock next winter for three months, from mid-December 2025 to the end of March 2026. But, unlike in previous years, the management has decided to charter another ship to replace it during this period on the route linking Cherbourg, in the Cotentin, to Poole, on the south coast of England.

The replacement will be the Clipper , a ship flying the Bahamian flag and with its crew mainly from Central Europe. The Barfleur , however, flies the French flag and employs its crew under the Enim scheme, the French social security system for the maritime sector. "When we were told, I immediately told the captain that we couldn't let this go," recalls a member of the Barfleur crew.

For the unions, the choice of a ship with lower social practices seems like a form of provocation, because Jean-Marc Roué, the president of Brittany Ferries, has been railing for years against the "social dumping" of some of his competitors. In particular, two ferry companies, Irish Ferries and P&O, which began using foreign seafarers after the Covid-19 pandemic, employed to the minimum standards of international maritime law: up to four consecutive months of work at wages well below the French minimum wage...

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