CRUSHED FERRY CREWS MADE REDUNDANT BY P&O FOR CHEAPER “AGENCY” STAFF
By George Icke, Head of News | Thursday 17th March 2022
P&O Ferries have today made the majority of their onboard crew redundant via a zoom call.
The popular ferry company announced that all sailings had been suspended earlier today but denied rumours they’d be going into liquidation.
Later today, it was announced that all crew staff were being made redundant. Footage leaked to The BBC showed the shocking moment that staff were told their employment was being “terminated” with immediate effect and that today was their last day working for the company.
Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport, tweeted to say: “I am very concerned about the news from P&O Ferries this morning and we will be speaking to the company today to understand the impact on workers and passengers.”
The redundancies are part of plans to plug a whopping £1 million deficit within the company's finances.
The staff will be replaced with cheaper agency staff allowing the company a more flexible staffing approach.
The actions of the cruise company are what is known by unions as “fire and rehire” which unions have been campaigning over for years.
The government were urged to vote in a piece of legislation by Labour to ban “fire and rehire” by law.
Unions urged staff not to disembark the vessels that they formerly worked on until further notice.