Police at an entrance to the Port of Hull, East Yorkshire, after P&O Ferries suspended sailings and handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices
(Picture: PA)The news that P&O was planning to lay off 800 staff on Thursday came as a shock to many, although perhaps not to those in the Department for Transport after the PM’s spokesman admitted that the government had been informed of the move on Wednesday (despite initially denying they knew of it). The move has been criticised widely by those in power and from trade union bodies, with Defence Minister James Heappey saying that the company’s behaviour and lack of consultation was “horrendous”, and urged the Treasury and Department for Transport to claw back the £10m furlough cash.
Heappey said: “It certainly feels to me that it would be the right thing to do for P&O to hand that money back and I am sure that colleagues at the Treasury and Department for Transport will be looking into it.
The minister said the Government was “seeing what they can do to make the situation better” but added: “The reality is that P&O have made a commercial decision and as much as we disagree with it, I fear for those workers they have been badly let down.
In a message to Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) members, general secretary Mick Lynch said: "It was with deep shock that I learned the news of the wholesale job cuts taking place at P&O Ferries, but I am sure that my shock was nothing as compared to the devastation this news brought to you and your colleagues."
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