In the wake of firing and replacing 800 of its crew, P&O Ferries’ vessels are subject to a crewing safety inspection by the UK’s Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) and the Labour opposition party has forced a vote in Parliament on workers’ rights
UK Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps has told P&O Ferries in a letter that all UK government contracts with the company and its owners DP World will be under review, all P&O Ferries vessels will be inspected for safe crewing by the MCA and reiterated that P&O Ferries is under review by the UK’s Insolvency Service.
"P&O may not have followed the correct and legal processes," in notifying government of the mass firing of employees, Mr Shapps’ letter said after noting the "considerable support" P&O Ferries received "throughout the pandemic, including via the furlough scheme".
UK opposition party Labour forced an emergency vote on workers’ rights in Parliament on 21 March, which passed 211 votes to zero, with the government abstaining.
The vote called on the government to reinstate the 800 out-of-work crew, suspend government contracts with DP World and remove DP World from the UK government’s Transport Advisory Group.
During debate in Parliament around the vote, Conservative MPs said that P&O Ferries management had told them the decision behind the mass redundancies came directly from P&O’s Emirati parent company, DP World.
DP World announced "record" earnings in its annual results on 10 March 2022, posting more than US$10Bn in revenue growth during the 2021 fiscal year, and MPs have repeatedly expressed anger over the millions of pounds of government support that P&O Ferries and its Dubai-based parent company DP World received during the pandemic.
Labour union RMT reported that wages for the agency-hired crew who are replacing the 800 P&O Ferries crewmembers who have been made redundant is equal to US$2.38 per hour, and Labour’s emergency vote is also seeking to outlaw the practice of firing and rehiring staff on lower wages.
The UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency has provided detail on inspections of P&O’s new crewing arrangements to maritime labour union Nautilus International.
The union asked the MCA how it intends to ensure that IFM, a Maltese crewing agency established in February 2022, can operate P&O’s ferries safely.
"Prior to the P&O [Ferries] vessels entering back into service the MCA will undertake port state control inspections of all eight vessels," a spokesperson for the MCA told Nautilus.
"The inspection will focus on operational drills (i.e. the ability of the crews to fight fire, muster passengers in the case of an emergency and evacuate a ship) and ensuring that personnel have received appropriate training and familiarisation in the tasks for which they have responsibility," the MCA said. "P&O have engaged with the MCA and the teams at MCA have been briefed."
20 March
Nautilus International and others posted what appears to be a letter to P&O Ferries’ remaining staff from Mr Hebblethwaite on P&O Ferries letterhead.
"Our focus now is getting our ships back to service," the letter said, thanking staff for their ’resilience’ and saying "it’s absolutely natural to feel uncomfortable" about extensive media coverage of the firings.
"Our ships will remain in port for the time being, as our new IFM [agency] seafarers get fully up to speed so we can return our vessels to service safely and securely. We’re anticipating the disruption to service to be relatively short-lived and I’m pleased to say Norbank will be back in service from tomorrow, sailing on the Liverpool-Dublin route, and the route has continued to maintain sailings throughout."
TSSA and RMT unions have both called for the UK Government to seize P&O Ferries vessels if the company will not reverse its decision to fire employees.
On 17 March, the UK Government wrote a letter to P&O Ferries chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite to say it suspects his company has failed to follow the rules that govern mass firings after P&O Ferries laid off more than 800 of its workers.
In the letter, UK Secretary of State, Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Kwasi Kwarteng and Under Secretary of State MP Paul Scully said there are clear rules and processes that employers must follow if they are making large groups of staff redundant. Those rules include notifying the Secretary of State of the action in advance and carrying out consultation with trade unions or elected employee representatives.
"Failure to meet the notification obligation is a criminal offence and can lead to an unlimited fine," the letter said. "We note that in this case P&O Ferries appears to have failed to follow this process. We have therefore asked the Insolvency Service to look at the notification requirements and to consider if further action is appropriate."
Expressing "anger and disappointment at the way P&O Ferries handled the redundancy of so many" on behalf of the UK Government, the letter asked for answers from DP World-owned P&O Ferries’ chief executive on 10 points "to understand why you think these rules do not apply to you".
"It cannot be right that the company feels tied closely enough to the UK to receive significant amounts of taxpayer money but does not appear willing to abide by the rules that we have put in place to protect British workers," the letter said, referencing money the company had taken when its services were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. P&O Ferries made some 1,100 staff redundant in May 2020 in a move it said was designed to ’right-size’ the business.
17 March
Responses to P&O’s apparent plan to fire hundreds of its workers are mounting. Hull Labour MP Karl Turner posted to Twitter that new crew were waiting to board P&O vessel Pride of Hull on King George Dock and the RMT Union was supporting crew sitting in on the vessel to prevent boarding.
"We understand that both current officers and ratings are to be sacked," the MP tweeted.
Maritime labour union Nautilus International has posted a statement in response to the mass firing of P&O staff, saying, "There was no consultation and no notice given by P&O. Be assured the full resources of Nautilus International stand ready to act in defence of our members. We believe it is in our members’ best interests to stay on board until further notice."
P&O has changed the customer messages on Twitter recently to announce that the expected disruption of services will be days rather than hours.
"Our services are unable to run for the next few days. Please arrive as booked, we will get you away on an alternative carrier as quickly as possible," P&O Ferries tweeted.
According to an initial statement from the ferry operator, its announcement, made with the support of P&O controlling shareholder DP World, will “secure the long-term viability” of the company.
P&O said that, in order to facilitate the announcement, all of the company’s vessels had been asked to discharge passengers and cargo and wait for further instructions.
“This means we’re expecting all our ports to experience serious disruption today,” P&O added.
P&O told the BBC that "In its current state, P&O Ferries is not a viable business. We have made a £100M (US$130M) loss year-on-year, which has been covered by our parent DP World. This is not sustainable. Without these changes there is no future for P&O Ferries."
Ahead of the announcement P&O said, "P&O Ferries is not going into liquidation. We have asked all ships to come alongside in preparation for a company announcement. Until then, services from P&O will not be running and we are advising travellers of alternative arrangements."
Ahead of reactions by Nautilus International, Rail, Maritime and Transport union general secretary Mick Lynch said there was “growing speculation that the company were planning to sack hundreds of UK seafarers”.
“We have instructed our members to remain on board and are demanding our members across P&O’s UK operations are protected, and that the Secretary of State intervenes.”
Riviera Maritime Media has contacted P&O multiple times by phone and email since the firings were announced but has not received a response.
Riviera Maritime Media will hold a series of live and virtual events throughout 2022. Register your interest and find out how to attend on our events page.
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.