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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent

P&O Ferries has ‘got away with it’, say unions as Shapps backtracks on action

PO Ferries PO Grant Shapps Insolvency Service Louise Haigh Peter Hebblethwaite DP World RMT
The Pride of Kent, (foreground) and The Spirit of Britain at the Port of Dover on 31 March 2022.
The Pride of Kent, (foreground) and the Spirit of Britain at the Port of Dover on 31 March 2022. All but one P&O Ferries employee has accepted the firm’s controversial payoff. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

A two-week battle to hold P&O Ferries to account for the summary sacking of 786 crew members appears to have ended with a whimper, as unions said the Dubai-owned company had “got away with it” after ministers backtracked on legal action and all but one employee accepted the firm’s controversial payoff ahead of Thursday’s deadline.

All of P&O Ferries’ crew working on British contracts issued out of Jersey were fired on 17 March, to be replaced by cheap agency workers. The firm gave the sacked workers a deadline of 5pm on Thursday to accept or forfeit a payoff which they said compensated for the breach of their employment rights.

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