A Glasgow-based firm has been accused of helping P&O Ferries rehire staff they sacked this month on new contracts.
Clyde Marine Recruitment (CMR) is helping ex-staff return to the company, and has been accused by the RMT trade union of "desperately phoning round staff who had been disgracefully sacked" and supplying a "scab workforce", reports the Daily Record.
The company, which said it had “no prior knowledge” of the mass firing plan, has confirmed they helped around 30 former P&O staff while others are in the process of being re-hired.
A demonstration outside the Govan office of the firm this week saw protestors slam CMR.
RMT Scottish organiser Gordon Martin blasted: “RMT has been made aware of CMR desperately phoning round staff who have been disgracefully sacked by P&O trying to get them to go back to work on vessels they were kicked off by a rotten employer on March 17.
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“We have been made aware of some extremely low hourly rates being offered as well as rates which, although considerably higher, don’t compensate loyal hard-working staff for being thrown out of secure full- time work to be replaced with short-term precarious agency work.”
“If P&O gets away with this, they will be coming for everyone else who believes in workers’ rights and fair pay and conditions.”
A CMR spokesman said: “There is a lot of misinformation about this situation. We are an agency that gets employment for UK domiciled seafarers and have assisted in finding over 15,000 positions in the last five years.
“We have helped around 30 former P&O staff who wanted to return to the company.
“They are not employed on the ‘cheap’, they are all on full UK maritime rates.”
P&O Ferries has been widely condemned over its decision to fire nearly 800 seafarers, 39 of them in Scotland, and replace them with agency staff.
Chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite admitted breaking the law by not consulting the trade unions on the mass sackings.
The firm is facing boycott calls and the UK Government has given the company “one further opportunity” to reinstate the staff.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: “I would strongly urge Clyde Marine Recruitment to reconsider aligning themselves with this appalling case of mass firings, which is putting workers everywhere at risk.
“This is a clear-cut case of fire and rehire – and shows that Clyde Marine Recruitment are complicit in P&O Ferries’ despicable treatment of their workers.
“Helping P&O Ferries to re-employ seafarers on the cheap is shameful.”
Meanwhile, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said P&O Ferries will be forced to “fundamentally rethink their decision” to sack their workers.
