UK ferry company fires 800 seafarers. Some are refusing to leave their ships

P&O Ferries carries greater than 10 million passengers and a pair of.2 million items of freight between ports in the UK and Europe annually. The corporate, which is owned by Dubai’s logistics group DP World, mentioned that it had resorted to mass layoffs to make sure its survival.

“The conduct we have now seen right this moment is totally unacceptable,” Robert Courts, the minister for Aviation and Maritime, instructed lawmakers.

Conservative lawmaker Huw Merriman, who chairs a transportation committee in parliament, known as the mass firing “appalling” and questioned its legality.

“The federal government should do every part it may possibly to make sure that this appalling employment transaction can’t be accomplished,” he mentioned in an announcement. DP World “should perceive that British clients will not do enterprise with firms that deal with their workers with contempt,” he added.

P&O Ferries mentioned it could present “enhanced compensation packages” to fired staffers. It mentioned that providers can be suspended over the following few days and passengers can be rebooked with different carriers.

The corporate instructed crew on Thursday to disembark passengers and take away cargo from their vessels, in line with a observe to workers shared by UK lawmaker Karl Turner on Twitter. The corporate mentioned within the observe that it anticipated “critical disruption” at ports because of this.

P&O Ferries runs as much as 70 sailings a day between the Port of Dover in the UK and France. The port is a key engine of the UK economic system, accounting for as much as 17% of the nation’s commerce in items earlier than Brexit, in line with consultancy Oxera.

RMT, a labor union representing transport staff, had speculated earlier than Thursday’s announcement that lots of of its members would get replaced by international staff — and instructed them to remain on board.

Turner, who represents the town of Hull in northern England, mentioned that an RMT officer on board ship The Delight of Hull instructed him that a minimum of 72 crew members have been refusing to disembark. Turner mentioned he had visited the King George Dock, the place the ship is positioned, and noticed two buses of company staff ready to board in addition to two minibuses of safety guards.

Mark Dickinson, the overall secretary for Nautilus Worldwide, a union representing maritime staff, known as the firings a “betrayal of British staff.”

Susannah Streeter, a senior funding and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, mentioned the best way the corporate fired staff was unlikely to assist it win clients.

“This might quick flip right into a extreme reputational headache for the corporate, with an enormous union combat looming forward,” Streeter mentioned.

Rustom Tata, an employer lawyer and chairman of regulation agency DMH Stallard, mentioned that it seemed like P&O Ferries was attempting to keep away from renegotiating pay with its staff and change them with company workers.

“For these workers who’ve been, or are about to be dismissed, they are going to definitely have claims for unfair dismissal,” Tata mentioned.

“One has to query the extent to which the integrity of the P&O model shall be impacted not solely by the actual fact of redundancies, but in addition by the apparently wholly deliberate strategy being taken to such a big proportion of its workforce ignoring among the fundamental fundamentals of worker relations,” he added.

UK commerce has been hit by the pandemic and the nation’s exit from the European Union. Items commerce with the remainder of the world had recovered to 7% under 2019 ranges by August final yr, whereas commerce with the European Union was nonetheless down 15%, the Workplace for Price range Accountability mentioned in October.