MARITIME workers’ unions worldwide are denouncing P&O Ferries’ move to dismiss 800 employees in the UK.
Seafarers were reportedly notified of their redundancy, effective immediately, via a pre-recorded Zoom call on Thursday last week.
P&O Ferries is a British company operating vessels within the UK and between the UK and Europe. It has been owned by DP World since 2019.
International Transport Workers’ Federation general secretary Stephen Cotton said the union condemns “in the strongest possible terms” the company and its decision.
A statement from the ITF suggests unions RMT and Nautilus had, at the time, instructed their members to remain onboard vessels as the unions demanded intervention from the UK government.
“We all must question how a company can literally sack its entire workforce on less than 24 hours’ notice,” Mr Cotton said.
“We’re deeply concerned at reports that busloads of non-union crew and ‘handcuff trained’ security are sitting in [ferry ports] Dover and Hull, waiting to remove and replace the British-based seafarers,” he said.
The announcement quickly triggered a global reaction, the Maritime Union of Australia calling for immediate intervention to reverse the course of P&O’s decision.
In a statement, the MUA said the ferry operator had indicated an intention to replace its entire UK-based seafaring workforce “with agency-sourced casual labour on reduced rates of pay, with lower training and safety standards”.
“These 800 workers were hard-working, loyal and committed employees who do not deserve such disgraceful and unconscionable treatment,” MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin said.
“We call on P&O’s majority shareholder, DP World, to examine the failures of P&O senior management that have put the company in a position where they can only remain profitable by sacking their entire seafaring staff,” he said.
“If DP World won’t act to prevent this as the majority shareholder, the UK government must, because a company that conducts business this way does so without any social licence.”
The MUA said the decision would compound the global supply chain crunch by causing further delays throughout Europe.
“Not only will this ruin the lives of 800 hardworking seafarers, this act of social and economic vandalism will disrupt hundreds of thousands of people and businesses for months to come at a time when the global economy can least handle it,” Mr Crumlin said.
“The ITF and the Maritime Union of Australia, alongside global transport unions, stands in resolute solidarity with P&O Ferries’ crew and reiterate our call for P&O to abandon this course of action,” Mr Crumlin said.
The message is echoed by ITF affiliates in New Zealand, which together represent tens of thousands of New Zealand transport workers.
The affiliated unions include the Aviation and Marine Engineers Association, E Tu, FIRST Union, the Maritime Union of New Zealand, the Merchant Service Guild Industrial Union of Workers, and the Rail and Maritime Transport Union.
New Zealand ITF affiliates co-ordinator Paul Tolich condemned the “trampling of the rights” of P&O Ferries seafarers.
“If it could happen to them there, it could happen to workers here,” he said.
“We have to stand up against multinational companies whenever they think they can get away with this.”
A report from The Guardian indicates P&O Ferries had informed some crew of their dismissal while they were still onboard their vessels.
“We know that for our staff this redundancy came without warning or prior consultation, and we fully understand that this has caused distress for them and their families,” a P&O spokesperson said in a statement quoted by The Guardian.
Unions have launched a global protest petition directed at DP World, which Mr Cotton will deliver to the company’s headquarters in Dubai later this month.
