The P&O sackings
Ministers and unions united to condemn the summary firing of 786 workers last week by P&O Ferries. The workers were told in a three-minute video message last Thursday that they were losing their jobs “with immediate effect”. Security guards then went aboard to escort crew off the ships. P&O, which is owned by Dubai-based DP World, said the redundancies were vital to ensure its survival as a “viable business”; last year P&O recorded losses of £100m. Sacked crew were replaced by cheaper foreign agency workers.
Ministers said they would look at whether
P&O had broken employment laws that require companies to alert Whitehall before making largescale redundancies. However, a leaked memo suggested that ministers had in fact been made aware of the plans. On Tuesday, P&O said that it was offering staff an “enhanced severance package” worth a total of £36.5m.
What the editorials said
“P&O Ferries’ sacking of 800 seafarers was a cold-hearted, brutal affair,” said The Guardian. The decision – which reportedly came from the very top of DP World, owned by Dubai’s ruling family – represents “the unacceptable face of capitalism today”. The mass redundancies “are probably not even lawful”: P&O has failed to meet obligations such as consulting staff about their intentions. “The Government must not give the green light to such acts.” Ministers should “threaten to end” DP World’s two contracts for the UK’s new freeports “unless P&O relents”.
“Businesses sometimes need to make harsh decisions,” said The Times. But this was callous and “unethical”. Yes, business dipped during Covid, but P&O pocketed £33m in emergency aid from the UK, and its parent company, the shipping giant DP World, is awash with cash: last month it announced record revenue, up 15% to $3.8bn. Brexit supporters used to argue that leaving the EU would drive up wages by curbing the flow of cheap foreign labour. The case of P&O suggests otherwise.