A former P&O Ferries chef is suing the company for £76million over a "sham" redundancy, claiming racial discrimination and harassment. John Lansdown, who joined P&O as a 16-year-old trainee, was one of 800 colleagues to be sacked in March after working as a sous chef on The Pride of Canterbury.
Mr Lansdown, 39, of Herne Bay, Kent, is the only seafarer among his former colleagues to take legal action after P&O sparked uproar by firing workers without notice last month. In his landmark claim to London South employment tribunal, Mr Lansdown accuses P&O of treating him unfairly because he is British.
He is claiming race discrimination on the basis that P&O replaced staff with non-British crew paid an average of just £5.50 an hour less than the minimum wage. Mr Lansdown, whose annual salary was £30,827, is seeking six figure compensation for lost earnings and injury to feelings in his claim against P&O and its chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite, as reported by The Mirror.
