P&O bosses sail by a moral compass so out of line with decent behaviour, it is a wonder their ferries ever find their ports. Now these disgraceful employers have sunk to new depths by trying to get already low-paid foreign workers to take a pay cut.
Overseas staff were brought in on pitiful pay as low as £4.30 an hour after the company dismissed nearly 800 British seafarers by Zoom.
Now it emerges some have been asked to sign new contracts on even worse pay. What started as £2,300 a month for chefs will now be reduced by nearly £200.
The way £325,000-a-year P&O boss Peter Hebblewhite treats his workforce just went from outrageous to scandalous.
Hebblewhite has already shown he cares nothing for public opinion. His own bosses should reflect on this bizarre business model when the public are their customers.
Grant Shapps is in no doubt he should go, but so far the Transport Secretary has done little but wring his hands.
As P&O operates in waters outside British jurisdiction, it can get around paying minimum wages. The company does not even comply with the employment law it should obey, as Hebblewhite was happy to confirm to MPs.
He would have enjoyed an upwardly mobile career operating the naval press-gangs of the 18th century.
But in the 21st century, such behaviour is unacceptable.
It’s a case of robbing poor to pay Peter.
Britain needs emergency budget
Keir Starmer tells the Sunday Mirror today that what Britain needs is an emergency budget to scrap the crippling National Insurance hike.
With the cost of living going through the roof, the last thing hard-working families need is yet more tax to cope with.
The Labour leader is also spot on in demanding the National Crime Agency be called in to investigate the disappearance of £11.8billion in Covid cash to fraudsters.
The money NI will raise is not far short of that astronomical figure, which means money earmarked for the NHS and social care will instead end up replacing what has been lost.
Sir Keir suspects Boris Johnson is not keen on calling in the police because that might reveal his own carelessness with the cash.
We suspect the Labour leader is right. Because Mr Johnson would far rather see money squandered than be held to account for it.
Napoleon producers meet their Waterloo
Church bosses had a bone to pick with the makers of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon biopic, who wanted to use the inside of Westminster Cathedral to recreate the Kremlin.
They told producers it was not appropriate after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The movie moguls accepted they’d met their Waterloo and agreed to film the scenes in CGI.
And churchmen had the satisfaction of knowing they’d succeeded in picking the Napoleon bone apart.
