Summary: P&O threatened with fines and criminal charges after day of anger
Time to recap, after a day in which P&O Ferries has been deluged in anger, heavy criticism and threats of legal action over its brutal shock sacking of 800 staff.
P&O’s astonishing, and quite possibly illegal, decision to summarily replace seafaring workforce with agency staff is swiftly turning into one of the worst cases of worker mistreatment, and appalling corporate behaviour, of recent years.
The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, warned P&O Ferries it could face an unlimited fine if its summary sacking of 800 British staff is found to have breached the law, as protests against the company’s actions took place at ports across the country.
Writing to the company on Friday, Kwarteng said he wanted to express, “in the strongest possible terms, the UK government’s anger and disappointment”.
He highlighted the taxpayer support received by the firm, including through the furlough scheme, and suggested it did not appear to have followed the procedure required for large-scale redundancies.
“It cannot be right that the company feels tied closely enough to the UK to receive significant amounts of taxpayer money but does not appear willing to abide by the rules that we have put in place to protect British workers.”
In his letter, Kwarteng said failure to give sufficient notice of large-scale redundancies, via the Insolvency Service and the Redundancy Payment Service, “is a criminal offence and can lead to an unlimited fine”.
However, it quickly emerged that Robert Woods, to whom Kwarteng’s letter was addressed, resigned as P&O Ferries’ chair in December last year. Business department officials blamed the error on the fact that the parent company DP World’s website had not been updated.
The shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said:
“The behaviour of P&O Ferries is an absolute scandal and must not be allowed to stand.
“The government have taken a full 48 hours to wake up to how outrageous this act was and all they’ve done is manage to write a letter to the wrong person complaining about the failure to give sufficient notice. They are missing the point. Businesses must not be given free rein to operate in this country while treating British workers with such contempt.”
It also emerged the government was made aware of the move on Wednesday night, the day before P&O staff were dismissed by Zoom.
Criticism rained on P&O from on high, with the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the bishop of Dover, Rose Hudson-Wilkin, condemning the sacking of 800 P&O Ferries workers yesterday as inhumane and completely unethical.
Ill-treating workers is not just business. In God’s eyes it is sin.
Boris Johnson’s spokesman said Britain is looking at whether P&O Ferries’ decision to fire 800 staff with immediate effect was lawful, and suggested there could be ramifications for the company.
A letter sent by chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite to staff showed that sacking the workers and replacing them with agency staff will reduce costs by 50%.
But the company has been warned that all P&O Ferries vessels will be subject to inspections before returning to sea to check whether new crews the company has “rushed through” are safe, the Transport Secretary has said.
In a letter to the firm, Grant Shapps also warned the Government was “closely considering” its relationship with both P&O and its parent company, Dubai-based logistics giant DP World.
The RMT union urged passengers and frieght firms to boycott P&O....
..while armed forces minister James Heappey suggested the company should return its furlough money.
There were protests at several ports served by P&O, including Dover, where local Conservative MP, Natalie Elphicke, was heckled:
Among the protesters was the Labour leader of Hull city council, Daren Hale.
“This is devastating news for the city and there is real anger in the community toward P&O,” he said.
He argued that Brexit was partly to blame.
“In the cruise industries there’s already a use of very cheap Filipino labour. One of the promises of Brexit, that we would be able to stop protect workers terms and conditions, has failed at the first hurdle,”
Demonstators also protested outside the central London offices of DP World, which owns P&O Ferries. Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told them:
“What P&O has done is a disgrace and disgusting by any standard.”
P&O protest at the DP world HQ in London - @jeremycorbyn here addressing and supporting the crowd pic.twitter.com/l82X8heGJi
— Sarah Hajibagheri (@SaraHajibagheri) March 18, 2022
Mark Dickinson, the General Secretary of seafarers union Nautilus International, says the sackings were a new low for the shipping industry, and “clearly illegal”.
The company is duty bound to consult, and consult with the trade unions. We have collective bargaining agreements for all the vessels on all the routes.
We’ve worked for this company for decades, through difficult times and good times.
This is clearly illegal.
Employment experts said that the sackings were due to insufficient legal protection for workers.
With P&O’s sailing suspended, there were concerns that capacity on crucial freight routes could be further stretched.
On the Dover-Calais route, Danish firm DFDS allowed P&O passengers to put their cars onto its ferries.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Due to the disruption to P&O services currently, we are accepting tourist customers with a vehicle booking until further notice. Please bring your P&O booking details to the DFDS check in desks in Dover & Calais for travel on the next available service. pic.twitter.com/UwZeoaWWVn
— DFDS UK Updates (@DFDSUKUpdates) March 18, 2022
Here’s some of our other business stories today:
Goodnight. GW
Updated
The P&O sackings scandal, and the threat of unlimited fines, is also the lead story on Saturday’s Guardian:
Saturday's Guardian: Threat of unlimited fine as anger over P&O grows #TomorrowsPapersToday #TheGuardian #Guardian pic.twitter.com/EWdXHuYbNF
— Tomorrows Papers Today (@TmorrowsPapers) March 18, 2022
