P&O Ferries crew members are refusing to leave the ships after 800 seafarers were fired by the company as a spokesman announced it is “not a viable business” in its current state. The firm said it has suspended sailings “for the next few days”.
Workers currently onboard ships were instructed by unions not to leave. Coaches carrying agency workers hired to replace them are parked near ships at ports.
Hull Labour MP Karl Turner posted a photograph of a coach, which he stated contained "new foreign crew waiting to board the Pride of Hull" at the city's King George Dock. RMT members are "sitting in onboard the vessel", so the new crew "will not be boarding her", he wrote.
P&O Ferries said in a statement: “In its current state, P&O Ferries is not a viable business. We have made a £100 million 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 there is no future for P&O Ferries.”
It added that after “seriously considering all the available options” it has taken the “very difficult but necessary decision” to hand immediate severance notices to 800 seafarers.
Those fired will be compensated for the lack of notice with “enhanced compensation packages”.
Keith Jones, from Harrogate, has been waiting in the P&O ferry terminal car park in Hull since before 8am, when he was due to be sailing to Rotterdam for a heavy haulage show on Saturday. He told the PA news agency: "We might go to Harwich but it's a long old trek and we've got to be certain we could get on something.
"I'm a bit browned off because it's a fair bit of money and we were actually booked on before the pandemic, so they've had the money for two years and transferred us on to this one. Now it doesn't look like it's going to happen. I'm a bit out of pocket. We've got a hotel booked."
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