14 2GM Friday March 18 2022 | the times
News
Former special forces soldiers boarded
P&O ferries to remove crew members
yesterday after the company sacked
800 staff without notice and replaced
them with cheaper overseas workers.
Employees were sacked via a Micro-
soft Teams video call in which they
P&O uses military muscle to
sack 800 staff by video call
were told that yesterday would be their
final day of employment.
Security staff equipped with hand-
cuffs and wearing balaclavas removed
workers from P&O’s ships. Passengers
and businesses were told to expect sail-
ings to be suspended for a week to ten
days, prompting fears of chaos at ports.
A spokesman for the prime minister
condemned the way the workers hadbeen treated as “completely unaccept-
able” and said Robert Courts, the mari-
time minister, had raised the sackings
with P&O’s management.
Dismissed workers clashed with
motorists at Dover when they tried to
block access to the port.
The Times understands that workers
were given 30 minutes’ notice of the
decision after the company suspendedall sailings before a “major company
announcement”.
Staff were told via video-link by
Stephen Nee, a P&O spokesman: “The
company has made the decision that its
vessels going forward will be primarily
crewed by a third-party crew provider.
Therefore, I am sorry to inform you
that this means your employment is
terminated with immediate effect on
the grounds of redundancy.”
Courts admitted the government
had known about the plan on Wednes-
day evening. He said he was “extremely
concerned, and frankly angry” at the
way P&O had operated.
Speaking in the Commons, Courts
said: “Reports of workers being given
zero notice and escorted off their ships
with immediate effect while being told
cheaper alternatives would take up
their roles shows the insensitive nature
by which P&O approached this issue —
a point I made clear when I spoke to the
management at P&O this afternoon.”
Members of the RMT union refused
to leave some ships, although it is un-
derstood tensions eased after talks on
redundancy deals. Two coachloads of
agency workers, mainly from Latvia,
arrived in Hull yesterday. Other work-
ers were seen near Dover.
The ferry crew were removed in an
operation led by Interforce, a security
company used by the Home Office to
handle migrants who have crossed the
Channel. Its staff include former mem-
bers of British special forces.
Karl Turner, the Labour MP for East
Hull, accused P&O of treating their
workers with contempt to “save a few
bucks”, having received £10 million in
furlough payments and other grants
from the government.
He said: “This is a predatory capitalist
business which makes multimillions
of pounds off the backs of British
workers yet is registered and owned in
Dubai. The chief executives and senior
management receive savagely high
bonuses and treat their British sea-
farers with utter, utter contempt.”
Union chiefs pledged to stage pro-
tests at P&O ports and said they were
seeking urgent legal action.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader,
said the treatment of workers had made
his “blood boil”, adding: “It is a complete
betrayal of the workforce. This is a com-
pany that [used] furlough during the
Covid crisis. It is absolutely disgusting
what they are trying to do. The govern-
ment said it was going to deal with this
sort of situation. It hasn’t.”
A leading employment law firm said
“those dismissed will certainly have
claims for unfair dismissal”, although
significant complexities are under-
stood to exist because of international
maritime law.
P&O Ferries reflagged its UK fleet
from Dover to Cyprus in 2019 for
“operational and accounting reasons”
in view of Brexit. In a statement it said
its “survival is dependent on making
swift and significant changes now”,
adding: “Without these changes there
is no future for P&O Ferries. We have
made a £100 million loss year-on-year,
which has been covered by our parent,
DP World. This is not sustainable.”
DP World was criticised for paying a
£270 million dividend to shareholders
at the end of April 2020 while P&O Fer-
ries cut 1,100 jobs as demand for travel
collapsed during the pandemic.
Mark Dickinson, the general secre-
tary of the Nautilus International
union, said: “We believe it is in our
members’ best interests to stay on
board until further notice.”Ben Clatworthy
Transport Correspondent
News Ferry sackings
A defiant P&O ferry captain sealed
himself and his crew inside a ship and
refused to leave yesterday after the
company’s 800 seafaring staff were
sacked without warning.
Eugene Favier, the Dutch captain of
the Pride of Hull, secured himself and
his 141-strong crew inside the vessel and
refused to let police or new crew mem-
bers on board.
Karl Turner, the Labour MP for Hull
East, said the captain was operating
under maritime law to prevent anyone
coming aboard at the city’s King
George Dock. He said those on the ship
had enough food supplies to last “as
long as it takes” to resolve the dispute.
However, the stand-off appeared to end
last night after the crew were given
assurances about enhanced redundan-
cy terms.
In Dover, tensions reached boiling
point when P&O staff blocking a road
near the port clashed with angry lorry
drivers caught in the resulting traffic
jam. Dozens of employees who lostCaptain
David Brown