Protests are set to continue against P&O Ferries, after the firm restarted its route from Liverpool following the sacking of 800 staff.
The ferry company terminated the contracts of all of their workers on Thursday, causing outrage across the country. The shock announcement came just hours after P&O suspended all of its services.
P&O said on Saturday it had resumed services between Liverpool and Dublin and all customers with affected travel will be contacted. Huge protests were held in Liverpool, Hull and Dover on Friday in a backlash against the company's decision to replace staff with agency workers.
READ MORE: Ministers give P&O bosses deadline to explain mass sackings
The RMT union has claimed P&O vessels on the Liverpool to Dublin route are being crewed with Filipino ratings on contracts paying below the minimum wage. The Nautilus union has called on Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to revoke P&O Ferries' licences in British waters.
RMT boss Mick Lynch told the BBC: "We don't believe it's safe to bring a crew that's never even seen the vessels and get them to run them a few days after they have been introduced to them.
"We think that they are importing Indian workers, Filipinos and Ukrainians at the moment to work on these vessels. That cannot be acceptable. If they are not prepared to maintain standards and employ British workers on British ferries, then something has got to be done."
Mr Lynch was speaking ahead of an emergency House of Commons debate on the P&O situation today. Labour will force a vote and demand that the ferry firm reinstates the 800 workers who were sacked without notice last week.
Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh will bring forward a motion aiming to outlaw 'fire and rehire' practices and calling for an urgent bill to strengthen worker rights. The motion will also call on the government to suspend the contracts of P&O owners DP World until the current row is resolved.
People in Liverpool have been urged to boycott P&O ferries sailing in and out of the city. City MP Ian Byrne described the boat as a 'scab vessel.' Sefton Central MP Bill Esterson, whose constituency includes the Port of Liverpool, said: "For loyal workers with years of experience to be summarily sacked with no warning at all is an outrage. It is draconian and Dickensian from P&O’s parent company DP World."
He added: “It was an amazing turnout for the protest at the Port of Liverpool – trade unionists and local people. It shows the strength of feeling at this shocking and unacceptable decision by the company to sack a loyal workforce and replace them with agency staff at a fraction of the cost. The Government must intervene. Warm words are not enough. P&O must reinstate every single sacked seafarer.”
On Friday a spokesperson for the ferry firm told The Independent said: “We know that for our staff this redundancy came without warning or prior consultation, and we fully understand that this has caused distress for them and their families.
“We took this difficult decision as a last resort and only after full consideration of all other options but, ultimately, we concluded that the business wouldn’t survive without fundamentally changed crewing arrangements, which in turn would inevitably result in redundancies.
“We also took the view, in good faith, that reaching agreement on the way forward would be impossible and against this background, that the process itself would be highly disruptive, not just for the business but for UK trade and tourism. The changes we’ve made bring us into line with standard industry practice.”
