The chief executive of P&O Ferries has been dubbed the “most hated man in Britain” over the firing of nearly 800 staff.
At Holyrood, Labour MSP Monica Lennon also accused Peter Hebblethwaite of “corporate terrorism” and blasted: “How do you sleep at night?”
P&O Ferries has been condemned for sacking hundreds of seafarers by video message and replacing them with cheaper agency workers
The decision has caused havoc with the vital Cairnryan-Larne line, which has been suspended, and led to threats of a boycott.
Hebblethwaite also admitted to MPs last week the company had broken the law by not consulting the unions ahead of the plan.
In a tense evidence session to Holyrood’s Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, Hebblethwaite was grilled by MSPs over his company’s actions.
SNP MSP Fiona Hyslop was the first to challenge him: “Do you have any regret? Do you have any shame?”
He said: “I don't think this is about me personally. I think this is about saving an organisation, saving 1000s of jobs. I regret the impact that this has had. Absolutely, I regret the impact this has had on 800 seafarers and their families. But unfortunately it was a very difficult but necessary decision.
Lennon also went on the attack: “You fired 800 experienced workers with an average service of 20 years. You sent in security guards with balaclavas and handcuffs. It is an extreme act of corporate terrorism.
“When will you resign?”
Hebblethwaite replied: “I want to be absolutely clear that there is a lot of press that is frankly inaccurate. So we did employ a security firm of professionals to keep our ships safe, but much, much more importantly, our people safe, at a very emotional time for them.”
He added: “The facts of the day - no balaclavas, none of those things that were reported. There wasn't a single incident, not one, of anybody being hurt, of anything inappropriate happening."
Lennon shot back: “I'm trying to believe you, but you have confessed to being a law breaker, so it is hard to believe anything that comes out of your mouth.”
Hebblethwaite said: “I have accepted responsibility for failing to consult and we are compensating people in full for that. I have apologised to 800 seafarers and their families and I continue to do that.”
Lennon said: “It sounds like you have convinced yourself that you are a saviour, that you are saving workers rather than throwing them overboard.
“The truth is you are a failure of a chief executive and most likely right now in a crowded field the most hated man in Britain.
“Your ethics are lying at the bottom of the seabed. How do you sleep at night?”
He said: “It was a very difficult decision. It was a decision that we implemented as actually the only option that in our opinion we had. It was a decision, as I reiterate, designed to save 1000s of jobs.”
New agency staff who are not officers that will work on P&O’s vessels will receive an average of £5.50 per hour.
Asked by SNP MSP Natalie Don, if he would work for the wages being paid to some staff, he said: “I chose a particular career and a particular way through that and it has led to me sitting here answering questions – totally appropriately positioned questions – about a very difficult decision that I have had to make.
“I didn’t choose a path that led to me being a seafarer.”
Drawing the meeting to a close, Hyslop said: “In my 20-plus years as a member of the Scottish Parliament, I am not sure I have come across an issue with an employer that has united – unilaterally right across the chamber – such hostility.
“The people that we represent, our constituents, even those who are not in the south of Scotland, or in Cairnryan, are absolutely disgusted and dismayed that a company of your reputation and your shareholders’ reputation has treated people with such disrespect and lack of dignity at work.”
She added: “I now close the public part of the meeting, I wish everyone a restful Easter break, unfortunately, that will not be the case for the many P&O workers that have suffered at the hands of this chief executive.”
In a letter to the committee ahead of the session, Hebblethwaite admitted that 39 of the 786 sacked seafarers live in Scotland.
Separate to the Holyrood session, the CEO insisted he will not reverse the sackings despite being given “one further opportunity” by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
He wrote to the CUK Cabinet minister claiming the request “ignores the situation’s fundamental and factual realities”.
Re-employing the sacked workers on their previous wages would “deliberately cause the company’s collapse, resulting in the irretrievable loss of an additional 2,200 jobs”, the letter stated.
“I cannot imagine that you would wish to compel an employer to bring about its own downfall, affecting not hundreds but thousands of families.”
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