‘Axe P&O sacking heavies’
Outrage at Tory security contract
SACKED P&O staff are furious taxpayers’ cash has been handed to the security firm that helped turf them out of their cabins.
The ferry giant employed Interforce guards with handcuffs when it axed 800 by video message in March.
Now some of those sacked have spotted the same heavies greeting migrants as they land at Dover.
Ads show Interforce are also hiring officers on zero hours contracts worth £14.50 an hour at a migrant centre at nearby Manston, Kent.
Last night Lee Davison, of the RMT union, stormed: “Interforce should be banned from all government contracts.
“This is yet another slap in the face for the seafarers who were sacked and it shows the utter contempt this Tory government has for them.”
North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale has written to Home Office minister Simon Baynes calling the deal a “very considerable cause for concern”.
And former P&O chef John Lansdown, who is suing the firm, said: “The way they dismissed us was a humiliation. This quasi-militia, handcufftrained and some in balaclavas turfed us out of our home away from home.”
Mr Lansdown claimed Interforce guards were not the right people to be dealing with vulnerable migrants.
“There’s not a day that goes by where I do not see and hear about the very real impact the events of March had on the mental and physical health of my former colleagues,” he added.
The Home Office said: “We have had a contract with Interforce since August 2021. Any work that they or any of our contractors carry out on behalf of other companies is separate from their contract with Government.”