New crews being drafted in to run P&O ferries are being offered wages as low as £2.60 an hour, according to reports. The agency staff were bought in after the ferry company suddenly axed 800 employees last week, and are being paid so little some union bosses have described it as a 21st Century recreation of 'slave ships'.
The agency that will be responsible for the new P&O Ferries crews was set up only four weeks ago according to Mailonline, which reported Maltese firm International Ferry Management is run by a Swiss shipping boss whose name was mentioned in the 2017 Paradise Papers leak.
One 59-year-old man who worked with the company for 23 years described the mass sackings as 'money-grabbing and a total betrayal'. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he told MailOnline that cheaper agency workers, understood to be from Eastern Europe, were being brought in on wages of £2 to £3 per hour to replace British sailors whose hourly rates can eclipse £28, reports Hull Live.
