Compensation of £36.5m is being offered by P&O Ferries to the 800 staff it sacked last week, with 40 employees in line for packets of more than £100,000.
In a statement, the company said the pay-outs would be linked to the period of service, and in some cases exceed £170,000.
A spokesman for Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng confirmed the government had received a letter from the firm in response to his questions about the shock move by the 5pm deadline on Tuesday, March 22.
