Boris Johnson has said P&O Ferries will be pursued through the courts for sacking 800 crew on the spot last Thursday in a move that could see the company liable for millions in compensation.
Confronted with the Tory government’s refusal to abolish the fire and rehire policy that saw the company replace UK staff with cheaper foreign crews, the Prime Minister promised action.
At Prime Minister’s Questions Johnson said, “it seems to me that the company has broken the law” and that he would make sure crews working in UK waters are paid UK wages.
But Labour’s Keir Starmer accused Johnson of “half-assed bluster and waffle” as replacement P&O crews from the sub-continent are reportedly being paid less than £2 an hour.
The Labour leader said the Prime Minister promised two years ago in a review that crew members sailing out of UK ports, particularly on the Scotland to Northern Ireland run, would be paid the minimum wage.
Starmer said the PM did not have the backbone to act against DP World, the parent company of P&O which is being lined up for £50 million government backing to establish two free ports in Southampton and London.
He raised the mass sacking of P&O Ferries workers from the beginning of Commons exchanges.
Starmer asked: “800 loyal British workers fired over Zoom, instantly replaced by foreign agency workers shipped in on less than the minimum wage. If the Prime Minister can’t stop that, what’s the point of his Government?”
Boris Johnson replied: “We condemn the callous behaviour of P&O and I think that it is no way to treat hardworking employees.
“I can tell him that we will not sit by because under section 194 of the Trades Union and Labour Relations Act of 1992 it looks to me as though the company concerned has broken the law, and we will be taking action, therefore, and we will be encouraging workers themselves to take action under the 1996 Employment Rights Act.”
“Both acts passed by Conservative governments and if the company is found guilty then they face fines running into millions of pounds, and in addition we will be taking steps to protect all mariners who are working in UK waters and ensure that they are all paid the living wage.”
Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael said: "If this is the advice that the government has received then they may act immediately.
"P&O Ferries must be made to fill the full force of the law. Failure to act will mean that instead of being an example to avoid, other companies, especially in the shipping industry, will see them as an example to follow."
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