The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Firm’s CEO should be ‘behind bars’, trade union president says
The chief executive of P&O Ferries should be “behind bars” after sacking 800 seafarers, a trade union president has said.
Peter Hebblethwaite replaced the workers with cheaper staff in order to protect the company, he said.
However, Pat Rafferty, Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) president, said sacking the seafarers via Zoom last month was “gutter” and “inhumane”.
Speaking at the annual conference in Aberdeen, Mr Rafferty said that the CEO should be put in jail to send a clear message to employers.
Mr Hebblethwaite rejected a request from Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, to reverse the decision.
He also admitted his company broke the law by failing to consult unions about the redundancies.
It is understood the business needed to cut costs to avoid collapse as it was losing money at a rate of £100 million per year.
Mr Hebblethwaite said re-employing the sacked staff on their previous wages would “deliberately cause the company’s collapse, resulting in the irreversible loss of an additional 2,000 jobs”.
Mr Rafferty said: “There is something seriously wrong with our society when a company CEO like P&O can swan into a Westminster
parliamentary committee and openly state that he broke the law – and worse still, he’d do it again.
“What that clearly demonstrates is how useless the law is. There is no deterrent to companies like P&O who are getting away with destroying people’s lives.
“The law needs to change. Peter Hebblethwaite should be struck off the directors register and put behind bars.
“That would send a clear message to employers: act irresponsibly towards workers and face the possibility that you will be jailed.”
Mr Hebblethwaite was also accused of “corporate terrorism” last month as he faced MSPs in Holyrood’s net-zero, energy and transport committee.
He told MSPs he had not taken a cut to his £325,000 salary while replacing his staff with agency workers who receive less than the minimum wage.