Downing Street has called for the chief executive of P&O Ferries to resign over the sacking of 800 workers, and pledged to push through legislation next week to force the company to reverse the move and pay its crew the minimum wage.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, had earlier promised action after Peter Hebblethwaite’s performance in front of the transport and business committees, which he said was “brazen, breathtaking, and showed incredible arrogance”.
Hebblethwaite admitted to MPs on Thursday that his company broke the law by sacking the 800 workers without consultation.
Boris Johnson’s deputy spokesperson said the prime minister agreed with Shapps’s view that Hebblethwaite should step down, and confirmed the plan for legislation. “We’ll be setting out a package of measures to take action against the unacceptable behaviour of P&O, and ensure this can’t happen again,” he said. “I can’t pre-empt that, but it would cover measures under things like international maritime law, domestic maritime law, employment law.
“The transport secretary spoke before about making sure that there are rules in place so that people sailing in UK waters can’t be paid below the minimum wage. [He] will set out full details of that next week.”
Speaking to Sky News, Shapps said: “I cannot believe that he can stay in that role having admitted to deliberately going out and using a loophole – well, break the law – but also use a loophole.”
Shapps also promised new legislation next week that would “close every possible loophole that exists and force them to U-turn”.
Shapps had called P&O Ferries’ plan to replace the sacked workers with agency staff on less than the minimum wage “simply unacceptable and we will force that to change”.
He accused the company of “mischievously” registering its ships under the Cyprus flag to avoid UK laws. He added: “They were breaking the law and deliberately set out to break the law, but effectively pay people off for their silence.
“We can’t have a situation where the minimum wage exists onshore, but as soon as you’re offshore … people aren’t covered by British laws on things like minimum wage, and overseas cheap labour is exploited on those routes.”
Shapps suggested that the new law, to be drawn up in consultation with the Labour party, would ban shipping companies from operating from British ports if they failed to pay the minimum wage. He said: “I’ve already spoken to my opposite number in the House of Commons in order to try and build a consensus around this.”
Hebblethwaite said on Thursday that Shapps knew about the intention to slash jobs in November last year, despite denials from the Department for Transport (DfT).
Asked if Hebblethwaite was “lying”, Shapps said: “I’ve sent the note, actually, from the meeting in November, which was with a parent company – DP World – when I was at World Expo, where they simply said the competition is very tough, the conditions are very tight … and they’ll be looking at the shape of their business. I’ve actually sent the formal civil service note of that meeting.
“I think we can all see that what they’re trying to do is distract attention. The fact of the matter is that they needed to give 45 days’ notice to ministers, in fact to the secretary of state for business, if you’re making these kinds of redundancies. They did not do that, they did not provide the notice.”
Minutes of the 22 November meeting were later released by the Commons transport committee, sent to them by the DfT. They show Shapps saying he knew about the issues faced by P&O Ferries, but only seemingly in general terms. “I’m aware of the issues relating to P&O,” Shapps told Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, DP World’s chair, the minutes recorded. “I recognise you will need to make commercial decisions, but please do keep us informed.”
