After P&O Ferries sacked 800 of their staff via a Microsoft Teams calls last month, failing to consult with workers or trade unions in the process, the company now faces protests at its sites across the UK.
Despite concerns that the ferry operator has essentially “got away with,” the mass sackings, which were in breach of employment law, the RMT trade union is pushing forward with a campaign against P&O Ferries and calling for better workers rights across the maritime sector.
The government has announced a package of measures aimed at tightening up regulations for seafarers going forward, and a change to minimum wage law for maritime workers which they say will remove the incentive for P&O to replace their former staff with agency workers.
1. Protests
Protests against P&O Ferries are ongoing at a number of sites across the UK, including Hull and Liverpool, after the firm broke employment law and made 800 staff redundant on the spot without consultation last month. | Photo: Ethan Shone/NationalWorld
2. P&O can’t ‘get away with it’
The RMT trade union, which represents many of the seafarers who’ve lost their jobs, has called on the public to boycott P&O Ferries, and warned that other companies will be emboldened to mistreat their workers if the ferry operator is seen to “get away with it”. | Photo: Ethan Shone/NationalWorld
3. Hull protest
On Tuesday (5 April) sacked P&O workers and their supporters gathered at King George Dock in Hull to voice their anger at the company over its treatment of staff, and the government’s failure to match its rhetoric with action . | Photo: Ethan Shone/NationalWorld
4. Peter Hebblethwaite
Many protesters who spoke to NationalWorld expressed their outrage at comments made in Parliament by P&O’s CEO, Peter Hebblethwaite, who told a select committee that he would do the same thing again. | Photo: Ethan Shone/NationalWorld