Kentish Express Ashford & District
Shore staff to be hit by new round of P&O job cuts
Ferry firm’s port and office roles under threat
More redundancies are to be made at P&O Ferries - this time affecting shore workers.
The Dover to Calais cross channel operator announced to its workforce on Thursday that 40 jobs are at threat, affecting back office staff and port based roles.
These are separate to the 36 sea-going positions that are under threat as reported exclusively by The Mercury last week, which the ferries union the RMT is in negotiations to save.
On Thursday, acting CEO David Stretch, said: “I said in my last call that we were looking at every part of our business and changes are being made at every level across ship and shore.
“Today I need to tell you: In the UK we are proposing to make around 40 roles redundant which include back office roles and Dover Port. We will begin consultation with the GMB on this proposal next week.
“In addition, P&O Logistics continues to review all parts of their business and they are in the process of carrying out individual consultations across Europe.”
A P&O Spokesman added in a statement: “Due to the extended impact of Covid19 on our passenger and freight businesses, we are announcing a further round of redundancy consultations with a focus on back-office roles and Dover Port employees in addition to the ongoing individual consultations being carried out by P&O Logistics across
Europe.
“This further action reflects the unprecedented economic realities of the pandemic lasting longer and hitting harder than we had hoped, and the need to consider all parts of our business to ensure we are a more agile business that is better able to provide our customers with the solutions and services which they value and demand.”
The company has not revealed a breakdown of how many jobs will go and from which departments from its shore departments.
General trade union, the GMB, which represents the shore workers, has been asked to comment.
P&O Ferries made 1,100 jobs redundant across its whole business in the summer.
Dover was the hardest hit, with 670 roles being crew from Dover ferries.
It came as the firm reduced its Dover to Calais capacity from a six ship to three ship model through lockdown, increasing to the four ships currently running.
Vessels the Pride of Burgundy and the European Seaway are out of use, destined to be sold or recycled.
It is thought the 36 roles in jeopardy are crew from these ships.
The company said it is not commenting on this existing consultation.
It was last week liaising with negotiators from ferries union the RMT who told members they were”disappointed” to find themselves back in this position after the months of negotiations held earlier this year.
We reported RMT general secretary Mick Cash demanded that sea-going jobs must be saved, especially as P&O Ferries was among the firms to benefit from £77m worth of contracts issued by the Department for Transport to provide additional maritime freight capacity once the Brexit process is completed on December 31.
He said: “We will not stand for taxpayers’ money being used to subsidise ferry companies that recruit crew from outside the UK so they can pay them less, including rates below the National Minimum Wage.
“Support to ferry operators to cover for the Government’s bungled Brexit must be on the condition that seafarer jobs in our coastal communities are protected.
“RMT call on the Government to ensure that these basic protections for British seafarers’ jobs are in place on these contracts and on any future contracts signed under the Freight Capacity Framework Agreement.”