Axe threat to P&O over mass sacking
THE Government was last night reviewing its contracts with P&O after 800 ferry workers were sacked without notice.
The transport giant has been hit with scathing criticism since its shock move on Thursday with Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden yesterday expressing his “revulsion” at the “sharp practices from P&O”.
He said the cross-channel operator and parent company DP World should be “in no doubt” the Government was considering its links with them.
His words came as protesters marched on the Tory spring conference in Blackpool to express their outrage at the sudden announcement.
This follows demonstrations at ports in London, Liverpool, Larne, Hull and Dover on Friday, with unions calling for a boycott of the company. All services remain suspended.
Mr Dowden said the Government was trying to establish whether the mass sacking was legal.
He said: “That is why the Transport Secretary has asked the Insolvency Service to look at the notification requirements, for example, and see whether further action is appropriate.
“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. I think they should be in no doubt that the Government is considering very closely its relationship with them.”
The Government has contracts with the ferry operator to transport goods to and from the Continent. One was a contract for freight between Tilbury in Essex and Zeebrugge in Belgium for nine months, worth £10.9million.
And Labour has published analysis of data it said shows P&O Ferries had received £38.3million in government contracts since December 2018. Last night, maritime union Nautilus International urged the Transport Secretary to revoke P&O Ferries’ licences in British waters as the operator resumed services on its Liverpool to Dublin route.
General secretary Mark Dickinson wrote to Grant Shapps encouraging the Government to “hold P&O to account”, and pursue “any legal option available” over how P&O handled the mass redundancies and request the return of any taxpayer cash the ferry operator received during the pandemic.
He wrote: “The action of P&O Ferries, terminating the employment of 800 British seafarers with immediate effect and without any consultation, is deplorable and a betrayal of British workers.”
P&O Ferries said: “We took this difficult decision as a last resort.we concluded that the business wouldn’t survive without fundamentally changed crewing arrangements.”