A P&O Ferries vessel is being inspected in the hope that it can restart normal sailings, including on the Liverpool to Dublin route.
The ferry firm has been under fire since it sacked nearly 800 staff in March and replaced them with agency workers earning less than UK minimum wage. Several protests have since taken place at the Port of Liverpool in Seaforth, where Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram and his counterpart in Greater Manchester Andy Burnham criticised the firm's actions.
Last week, Mr Rotheram said companies that don’t meet the standards expected of an ethical business looking to trade in the city region “won’t be getting any of our money”, when responding to a question regarding proposed action against P&O Ferries. However, he conceded the city region’s options were limited in relation to the case of P&O.
READ MORE: New Decathlon store inside former Next on Church Street opening next week
Now, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said it began assessing P&O ship Norbay on Wednesday, which the company is hoping can be used on the Liverpool-Dublin route. P&O did begin to resume services between Liverpool and the Irish capital on March 19 - just two days after the mass sackings, but hopes that the Norbay will allow it to resume normal operations.
The RMT union raised safety concerns about the vessels being staffed by agency workers in March, and now eight P&O vessels will be examined by the MCA.
A spokesman for the agency said: “Our surveyors are carrying out a full inspection of the P&O ferry Norbay before it returns to service, to make sure it complies with international regulations on manning and safe operation, in particular emergency procedures such as firefighting and evacuating the ship. There are no further inspections of P&O Ferries at the moment but we will re-inspect when requested by P&O Ferries.”
The ferries Spirit Of Britain and Pride Of Kent remain under detention after safety issues were found. This caused a shortage of ferry capacity in the run-up to Easter on the key Dover-Calais route, which contributed to large queues of lorries on coastbound roads in Kent.
European Causeway – which runs between Larne in Northern Ireland and Cairnryan in Scotland – was detained after an initial inspection on March 25 uncovered 31 safety failings. The ship was cleared to sail a fortnight later following another examination.
Pride Of Hull passed its inspection, enabling it to operate between Hull and Rotterdam. Three other ferries are out of action as they have not yet been fully inspected.
On Tuesday, Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh accused the company of being a “rogue operator” which is “cutting corners and putting key UK shipping routes at risk”. P&O Ferries said in a statement that “any suggestion” that safety is being compromised is “categorically false”.
