P&O resumes Liverpool-Dublin service as government reviews contracts
P&O crossings between Liverpool and Dublin resumed on Saturday afternoon, two days after the ferry company suspended services when it sacked 800 staff and brought in replacement agency workers.
Labour had called on the government to step in and halt any crossings, as ministers confirmed that all government contracts with the company were being reviewed.
The Conservative party co-chair Oliver Dowden said P&O Ferries and its owner, DP World, “should be in no doubt the government is considering very closely its relationship with them”.
“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,” he told Times Radio.
It came as the Sunday Times newspaper said it received a leaked memo apparently written by a senior Whitehall official that tried to “justify” the mass redundancies, stating that “without these decisions, an estimated 2,200 staff would likely lose their jobs”.
The memo, which is claimed to have been sent before 800 P&O staff were told of their jobs being lost on Thursday, adds the changes “will align them with other companies in the market who have undertaken a large reduction in staff previously”.
The newspaper said it was “widely shared across government” and recipients included the prime minister’s private office while the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, is understood to have received a copy.
After reports the firm intended to resume the Liverpool-Dublin route with its Norbank ship on Saturday, the shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, said: “P&O must not be allowed to sail today with replacement agency labour for loyal workers unjustly sacked this week. Strong words from
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