Yesterday’s shock sackings of 800 seafarers by P&O Ferries was an act so outrageous that it prompted near-universal disgust across the country. The sight of security guards, apparently wearing balaclavas and wielding handcuffs, ambushing ordinary British workers and forcing them off their boats and into immediate unemployment was unprecedented.
These workers need a government that will step in and act to protect their jobs, not offer up meaningless platitudes. Shockingly, despite being informed of these plans the previous night, the government did not lift a finger to find out if these sackings were illegal, and if there was anything that could be done to stop them.
It is unbelievable that no alarm bells were set off. Did they not think to find out how P&O Ferries proposed to dismiss 800 staff with a click of their fingers – and at least attempt to warn it off its proposed course of action in the strongest possible terms?
The government has had fair warning that there were serious issues at P&O Ferries. Two years ago, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the billionaire head of Dubai-based DP World, the owners of the ferry company, claimed that P&O Ferries needed £257m in aid to avoid collapse and asked the UK government for £150m – all while paying DPW shareholders £270m. They were turned down – and one month later, they made over 1,000 employees redundant.
Yet none of this stopped the Conservatives cosying up with DP World. Last September, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, said he was “thrilled” to greenlight hundreds of millions of pounds of DP World investment in Thames Gateway and Southampton. A month later the company partnered with the Foreign Office’s development finance. And for the last two years, DP World has sat on the UK government’s trade advisory group.
It seems that just like with the Russian oligarchs, the government has lost sight of the national interest, writing blank cheques without asking for anything in return – not even basic protection and human decency towards British workers. Why is it that P&O has sacked almost a quarter of its British staff, while regional media in France is reporting that no French employees have been affected?
On the surface, this is a case of “fire and rehire”. The sacked workers can reapply via an agency, who will now be providing P&O staff on worse terms and conditions. For some workers, this option is not feasible. It would appear that the end result will be existing staff replaced by new agency workers.
This national scandal has to mark a moment of real change.
A decade-long assault on workers’ rights under successive Conservative governments must come to an end. This has to be a line in the sand. We are calling on the government to suspend and review all licences and contracts held with DP World, and suspend it from the trade advisory group. And the Conservatives must bring forward legislation immediately to outlaw fire and rehire – and strengthen workers’ rights.
Never again should any company think they can treat British workers with such contempt – and be given the green light by the government to do so. Labour will make Britain work for working people.
Louise Haigh is the shadow transport secretary and Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley
