A maritime union has called on the transport secretary to revoke P&O Ferries’ licences in British waters, calling the firm’s decision to sack 800 workers a “deplorable betrayal” of their employees.
The ferry company suspended all of its services on Thursday just hours before the staff were told they would be replaced by agency workers.
P&O said on Saturday that services had resumed between Liverpool and Dublin. Labour MP for Sefton Central, Bill Esterson, said that the firm restarting sailings was a “kick in the teeth for sacked seafarers”.
He added: “Let alone safety concerns. Government must suspend licences and contracts with P&O until the dispute is resolved.”
Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh reacted to the news that sailings had re-started, saying: “P&O must not be permitted to sail today with replacement agency labour for loyal workers unjustly sacked this week.”
He called on the government to “step in and act”.
Now the Nautilus International general secretary Mark Dickinson has written to Grant Shapps urging the government to “hold P&O to account” by revoking its licences to operate in British waters.
Union boss Mr Dickinson also encouraged ministers to pursue “any legal option available” to challenge P&O’s decision to make hundreds of its staff redundant.
He wrote: “The action of P&O Ferries, terminating the employment of 800 British seafarers with immediate effect and without any consultation, is deplorable and a betrayal of British workers.
“This decision by P&O is a major blow to the British maritime industry,” he said. “We cannot sit back and permit P&O Ferries to sink the nation’s maritime strategy.”
P&O have defended their actions by saying that the job cuts were “very difficult but necessary”. They said that the company was “not a viable business” in its current state.
However transport secretary Grant Shapps wrote to P&O chief executive on Friday, saying that he was “questioning the legality of this move” and would be reviewing P&O Ferries’ contracts.
The Conservative party co-chair Oliver Dowden also said that the firm 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 repulsion at the kind of sharp practices from P&O,” he told Times Radio.
Labour have urged the government to publish the legal advice it received on whether P&O broke the law. The party has asked if there are any legal moves ministers could take to reverse the decision to make so many staff redundant without consultation.
Keir Starmer called the company’s actions “agressive and immoral”.
His comments came as former P&O employees claimed they were “treated like criminals” by security, who had been hired to escort their off the vessels.
One worker told the BBC that the security staff were “obnoxious and rude”. Staff were reportedly given just two hours to pack their belongings into bin bags.
Unions are calling for a boycott of P&O and Labour MP for East Hull, Karl Turner, backed them on Saturday saying: “The government should be telling every single person to boycott P&O Ferries.”
A spokesperson for P&O said: “We took this difficult decision as a last resort and only after full consideration of all other options but, ultimately, we concluded that the business wouldn’t survive without fundamentally changed crewing arrangements, which in turn would inevitably result in redundancies.”
