P&O Ferries has come under renewed scrutiny after claims it has previously paid migrant workers as little as £1.82 per hour. According to Labour MP Karl Turner, the beleaguered ferry company’s foreign staff were paid from £1.82 an hour and some even had to live in tents.
The firebrand MP who has been dealing with P&O for years in his Hull East constituency claimed foreign workers were expected to put in 12-hour shifts in eight week blocks. The ferry firm whose on-the-spot mass sacking of 800 workers drew universal condemnation, has already found foreign replacement agency staff.
According to the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, migrants are earning way less than the £8.91 minimum wage. Billy Jones, branch secretary for Humber shipping for the RMT union, said hourly wages of between £2.60 and £2.80 were being paid to eastern Europeans to crew P&O's Pride of Hull ship.
As reported in The Mirror, Turner said in an interview that he had known foreign crews to be hired for even less. "Ministers give you platitudes and say 'It's not very good is it, we're going to have to do something about it', then do absolutely f*** all," he said.
When asked how little workers are paid, Turner said: "What P&O has accepted previously in meetings with me and the RMT, they've said $2.40 an hour (£1.82). That was only admitted by them because we got some correspondence from the P&O management a couple of years ago which was leaked to the RMT.
"We produced those documents to ministers at the time. It's grotesquely exploitative."
It claimed the business had lost £100million during the pandemic, although its owner, Dubai-based DP World, reported record profits this month of £2.9billion. Turner claimed that foreign crews on P&O's Pride of Rotterdam ferry service between the Netherlands and Hull were also subject to questionable working practices.
"On the Pride of Rotterdam, they work eight weeks on and two weeks off," he said. "They do 12-hour shifts with a short break to eat.
"They can't afford to get decent accommodation so they get terrible multi-occupancy-type accommodation in Hull, very often staying in hostels for £9 a night. Some have been known to pitch tents for a fortnight."
Sources close to P&O told The Times that the hourly pay figure claims made by Turner and the RMT were wholly inaccurate and that staff were employed by an agency. Rishi Sunak told the BBC's Sunday Morning show: "I think one of the most important things that we can do is create the conditions for companies to create jobs for people."
He confirmed that the government was reviewing all its contracts with P&O.
