Record £600m plunder for P&O Ferries owners
Dubai-based firm’s huge profit... after firing 800 workers
THE owner of P&O Ferries faced a backlash yesterday as it raked in record half-year profits despite sacking hundreds of workers at the company earlier this year.
Dubai-based ports group DP World drew condemnation after P&O abruptly fired 800 staff in order to replace them with cheaper agency workers – in a move the firm’s boss Peter Hebblethwaite later admitted had been illegal but was ‘saving the business’.
DP World then fanned the flames by crediting Mr Hebblethwaite with doing an ‘amazing job’ despite the sackings being described as ‘corporate thuggery’ by politicians.
And the outrage at P&O was shrugged off once again by DP World after it yesterday reported a record profit of £603million for the first six months of this year, an increase of nearly 52 per cent compared with the same period in 2021.
The group, one of the biggest port operators in the world, credited the increase to a shortage of cargo ships following a surge in demand and supply chain disruptions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘We are delighted to report a record set of first- half results,’ said DP World boss Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem.
But the bumper payday for the company drew outrage from trade union leaders, who called on the Government to scrap all of its contracts with the company.
‘DP World have been allowed to get away scot-free with behaving like corporate gangsters,’ said Frances O’Grady, secretary general of the Trades Union Congress. ‘These eye-watering profits come off the back of illegally sacking hundreds of dedicated staff. They are an insult to common decency.’
Miss O’Grady added: ‘Ministers should have stripped DP World of all their lucrative public contracts.’
P&O Ferries operates passenger routes between Dover and Calais, as well as between Hull and the Dutch ports of Rotterdam and Zeebrugge and services across the Irish Sea. It sparked public fury and was hauled in front of MPs to answer questions when it sacked hundreds of workers without notice in March.
The company said at the time that the decision had been made to ensure its survival, saying its losses were ‘not sustainable’.
P&O had previously requested a £150million bailout from the Government after demand for its ferries collapsed during the pandemic.
But the request was turned down after it was reported the firm had paid out £270million in dividends to investors in 2020. Staff were initially told of the mass firings in video calls on ships telling them it was their last day of employment, before ordering them off the vessels.
During the parliamentary hearings, the business admitted that
‘This is an insult to common decency’
it had broken the law that would have forced them to give notice of the firings, saying this was because no union would have accepted its new proposals.
P&O also admitted that almost 200 of the staff it fired said they had lost possessions that were left on the ships on the day the sackings were carried out.
An investigation by the Insolvency Service is being monitored by the Government, which previously said it was unable to take action directly against the directors of P&O Ferries.