Wales On Sunday

‘Revulsion’ over P&O’s action – Tory chairman

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NEW crews being drafted in to run P&O ferries are being offered wages as low as £2.60 an hour, according to reports.

The agency staff were brought in after the ferry company suddenly axed 800 employees last week. The agency that will be responsibl­e for the new P&O Ferries crews was set up only four weeks ago, according to Mailonline.

One 59-year-old man, who worked with the company for 23 years, described the mass sackings as “money-grabbing and a total betrayal”.

He told MailOnline that cheaper agency workers, understood to be from Eastern Europe, were being brought in on wages of £2 to £3 per hour to replace British sailors whose hourly rates can eclipse £28.

Tory chairman Oliver Dowden has said P&O Ferries and its parent company DP World should be “in no doubt” that the UK Government is considerin­g its links with them following the action.

The government’s contracts with the firms are being reviewed and Mr Dowden said there was “revulsion” about the handling of the process: “I think they should be in no doubt that the government is considerin­g very closely its relationsh­ip with them,” he said.

He told Times Radio the government was trying to establish whether the mass dismissal was legal.

Mr Dowden said: “All of us feel, frankly, a revulsion at the kind of sharp practices from P&O. There has been a complete lack of engagement, a lack of prior notice or indeed any empathy whatsoever for the workers.”

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng wrote to P&O’s chief executive on Friday to express their “disappoint­ment and anger”.

Mr Shapps said he had instructed the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to carry out inspection­s of all P&O vessels before they return to sea to check the new crews the company has “rushed through” are safe.

Demonstrat­ions were held at ports in London, Liverpool, Larne, Hull and Dover on Friday.

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