P&O Ferries has confirmed plans to make 800 staff redundant as vessels have been halted for the coming days.
The operator, which employs 4,000 people and runs 20 ships, issued a statement today confirming the plans.
P&O Ferries has announced that 800 seafarers will be made redundant, effective immediately, due to massive losses.
A statement from the company confirmed the news at lunchtime today.
They said: "In its current state, P&O Ferries is not a viable business. We have made a £100m loss year on year, which has been covered by our parent DP World.
"This is not sustainable. Our survival is dependent on making swift and significant changes now.
Without these changes, the company said, there is no future for P&O Ferries.
"These circumstances have resulted in a very difficult but necessary decision, which was only taken after seriously considering all the available options," the statement said.
"As part of the process we are starting today, we are providing 800 seafarers with immediate severance notices and will be compensating them for this lack of advance notice with enhanced compensation packages."
Following the initial announcement this morning, P&O confirmed that they were not going into liquidation and that they have asked all ships to come alongside in preparation of the announcement.
P&O Ferries operate from a number of ports in the UK and Europe including Dublin, where they have 3 departures every day.
Those who had booked ferries for today have said they were left waiting on the port, with staff unaware of what to tell them.
At 7:45 am, moments after the announcement this morning, one Twitter user said: “But who is going to let us know and when please? We were meant to be on the 6:30 ferry, sat here since 5:30 and not one person has explained anything?”
P&O replied that the passenger would be travelling with DFDS and that someone would be around to tell them shortly.
Another said: “And staff telling us that Stenaline will honour the booking. Land over to Stenaline and they haven't a clue what's going on!”
P&O replied to this Tweet and apologised, saying that the staff “should have known”.
General Secretary for the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, Mick Lynch, said: "We have instructed our members to remain onboard and are demanding our members across P&O's UK operations are protected, and that the Secretary of State intervenes to save UK seafarers from the dole queue."
