The government has pulled the plug on its “one-of-a-kind” agreement with P&O Ferries over its “unacceptable” sacking of nearly 800 workers.
The Home Office announced it was terminating the contract between the ferry firm and the Border Force agency with “immediate effect” on Monday evening.
P&O Ferries was widely condemned after replacing nearly 800 seafarers with cheaper agency workers without notice on 17 March.
The termination comes after the Department for Transport (DfT) conducted a review of links with the firm in the wake of the mass redundancies. The DfT said the review had been concluded and that the only contract identified with P&O Ferries had been broken off.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “In response to P&O Ferries’ unacceptable behaviour, Border Force has terminated its agreement with P&O to provide contingency travel services to juxtaposed ports with immediate effect.”
Transport secretary Grant Shapps tweeted: “I called for a full review of Government agreements with P&O Ferries and working with @ukhomeoffice we’ve terminated @UKBorder’s one-of-a-kind agreement with the company.
“We’re reforming maritime law to stop firms exploiting legal loopholes and protect workers’ rights.”
P&O was condemned after it replaced 786 crew members earlier this year, prompting sit-in protests by those affected aboard its vessels on the advice of union representatives.
Politicians and trade unions joined the outcry from its former workers, saying the decision put the safety of ships at risk.
But the ferry firm’s CEO Peter Hebblethwaite hit out at “misinformation” about P&O Ferries, telling an industry conference earlier this month: “We have not conducted ourselves on the day, or since, in anything like the way that has been suggested of me and us.”
The statement followed his admission to MPs in March that P&O Ferries broke the law by not consulting trade unions before sacking its workers.
Elsewhere, the Insolvency Service is carrying out criminal and civil investigations.
Measures aimed at ensuring seafarers are paid at least the UK’s national minimum wage were included in the Queen’s Speech. The government will introduce legislation banning ferries from docking at UK ports if they pay workers below that level.
