P&O were branded “immoral and aggressive” and told they were “acting like gangsters” as protests against the mass sackings took place in ports across the UK today.
The Government is investigating whether P&O broke the law when the firm fired 800 crew without notice on Thursday, many by pre-recorded video message.
All Government contracts with P&O Ferries and its wealthy Dubai-based owner, DP World, are now under “review” and every P&O vessel must be inspected by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency before going to sea with their new crews.
Hundreds of people gathered at P&O terminals in Dover, Hull and Liverpool and at the Central London offices of DP World to protest against the sackings.
In Hull, Labour MP Karl Turner was among 200 protesters who marched to the P&O terminal and banged on the doors, demanding management come out to talk. Mr Turner shouted: “Get yourselves here and face those sacked men and women and explain to them why you’ve done what you’ve done.”
One man in his 40s, who said his belongings were still on P&O’s Pride of Hull, was told he was fired by email. He said: “It’s despicable.”
Another man, a dad of two in his 30s who had worked for P&O for seven years, said: “I had my full life planned out, and now I’ve got nothing. It was callous, despicable, disgraceful.”
In Dover, Tory MP Natalie Elphicke was jeered as she joined the demonstration and told, “Shame on you – you voted for fire and rehire”.
Billy Jones, branch secretary for Humber Shipping at the RMT union, accused P&O of turning its ferries into “modern slave ships”, paying new crew as little as £2.60 to £2.80 an hour. P&O did not comment on the claimed pay rates, although an insider insisted the figures were wrong.
But asked to provide the actual pay rates, they said the company was unable to because the workers concerned were employed by an outside agency. Workers could potentially be paid below the UK’s £8.91-an-hour living wage because of “flags of convenience”, where a vessel is registered in another country with different employment regulations.
In a letter to P&O CEO Peter Hebblethwaite, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “The disappointment we feel is even more acute because of the undertakings that the company gave not to change terms and conditions when your ships were reflagged to Cyprus in 2019.”
The Nautilus International union said: “We will clearly keep a very close eye on the pay situation at P&O.”
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng also wrote to Mr Hebblethwaite, questioning whether “clear rules” over the mass redundancies had been followed.
He said: “Failure to meet the notification obligation is a criminal offence and can lead to an unlimited fine. We note in this case P&O Ferries appears to have failed to follow this process.”
The firm claims the sackings were necessary due to mounting losses.
John Tilley, of the RMT, claimed the replacement of British workers with cheap foreign labour had been going on for “decades” so only “a handful” of British workers were affected.
An agency worker drafted in to replace P&O staff told how he walked off after realising what was happening. Mark Canet-Baldwin told BBC Radio Humberside: “It was horrible.”
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said: “This kind of gangster practice cannot be allowed to happen. People should boycott working for this company while this is ongoing.”
Labour’s Keir Starmer said: “P&O’s actions are aggressive and immoral.”
In a statement, P&O Ferries said: “The changes we’ve made bring us into line with standard industry practice.” It aimed to restart sailings “in the next day or two”, losing £1million on each day it was not operating.
Mr Shapps and Mr Kwarteng originally sent their strongly worded letters to the wrong person, Robert Woods, who quit as chairman of P&O in December. They then had to redirect the letters to Peter Hebblethwaite.
