‘Scandalous betrayal’: MPs condemn P&O Ferries for mass sacking of 800 staff
Ministers and trade unions have condemned P&O Ferries’ mass sacking of 800 British seafarers to replace them with cheap agency crew as shameful and “completely unacceptable”, amid furious calls for action against the transport company’s Dubai owners.
P&O Ferries’ services could be suspended for up to 10 days, disrupting its cross-Channel and Irish Sea routes, after an extraordinary day in which the operator sacked its entire British seafaring staff without notice. They learned the news of their redundancy via a pre-recorded video message this morning.
Politicians on both sides called on the government to act to stop what Labour and unions called a “scandalous betrayal”.
Staff were told by P&O to discharge passengers and freight before being sent a video message telling them P&O “vessels will be primarily crewed by a third-party crew provider … Your final day of employment is today.”
Long-serving crew were removed from ships by security guards in Dover and Larne, near Belfast. Replacement agency workers, believed to be recruited in the UK and Europe, had already boarded some vessels in Dover on Thursday afternoon.
Unions had instructed members to stay onboard as they demanded urgent government intervention, but by the evening the potential for prolonged standoffs ended, when crew in Hull left their ship. Earlier, the Dutch captain of P&O’s Pride of Hull had backed crew who refused to leave.
In Dover, one 46-year-old P&O crew member of 30 years’ service, said he was worried about how he would support his family. He said: “There were grown men in tears worrying what to do about their mortgages. We’ve been treated abysmally. This was planned for ages; it’s not off the hoof.”
Legal experts raised questions about whether there had
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