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P&O Ferries has suspended sailings for 'the next few hours'

P&O Ferries "will be making a major company announcement today" about its future. Meanwhile all sailings suspended and ships tied up in port.

"P&O Ferries is not going into liquidation," the company tells me.
"We have asked all ships to come alongside, in preparation for a company announcement. Until then, services from P&O will not run and we are advising travellers of alternative arrangements”.

Let’s hope the announcement isn’t about improving the service to the customers!  :o

The latest rumour is, is that they are going to sack all their UK staff and replace them with cheaper foreign labour.

P&O Ferries has paused its services "in preparation for a company announcement" later on Thursday.

The ferry operator said it was not going into liquidation but all ferries had been instructed to stay in port.

Union RMT urged the firm to protect jobs amid speculation that hundreds of crewmembers could "be sacked and replaced with foreign labour".

As a result some sailings scheduled for today have been cancelled, with passengers told to use other companies.

P&O services scheduled today include 14 between Dover and Calais, three between Liverpool and Dublin and seven between Larne in County Antrim and Cairnryan in Dumfries and Galloway.

The latest rumour is, is that they are going to sack all their UK staff and replace them with cheaper foreign labour.
Info from RMT https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/future-of-pando/ (https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/future-of-pando/)

Irish Ferries recently started operating Dover-Calais, and if Social media is to be believed (I know, not a good place to get info from) they are using overseas crews and this could offer an explanation as to what P&O could be doing. As I say, it looks very ominous if you bring all your ships back to port like they have done today. Have the existing crews been asked to leave the vessels they work on pending the announcement?

P&O Ferries today made all its crew members redundant with immediate effect and replaced them with agency staff - but union leaders told workers to refuse to leave their ships and stage a 'sit in' amid a huge row over pay.

Agency workers are already waiting at docksides ready to board the ferries, but P&O faces a battle to persuade its hundreds of existing staff to disembark due to widespread fury at its 'treacherous' decision.

The RMT said: 'We have instructed our members to remain onboard and are demanding our members across P&O's UK operations are protected and the Secretary of State intervenes to save seafarers from the dole queue.'

Labour MP Karl Turner posted a photograph of a coach which he stated contained 'new foreign crew waiting to board the Pride of Hull' at King George Dock, Hull.

Members of the RMT union are 'sitting onboard the vessel', so the new crew 'will not be boarding her', he wrote. He added: 'We understand that both current officers and ratings are to be sacked.'

P&O Ferries - which said existing workers can apply to the agency for work - preceded its announcement by dramatically ordering all its ships back to port and kicking off bemused passengers with little warning.

The news has caused chaos for tourists and freight businesses, with huge crews of lorries seen queuing at Dover.

P&O Ferries has sparked outrage after sacking 800 staff with plans to replace them with cheaper agency workers.

Staff were told in a video call that today was their "final day of employment", but some refused to leave their ships in protest and were forcibly removed.

P&O said it was a "tough" decision but it would "not be a viable business" without the changes. But the government called the workers' treatment "wholly unacceptable".

"Reports of workers being given zero notice and escorted off their ships with immediate effect while being told that cheaper alternatives will take up their roles shows the insensitive way in which P&O have approached this issue," said Robert Courts, parliamentary under secretary for transport.

And the RMT union is threatening legal action against P&O, calling it one of the "most shameful acts in the history of British industrial relations".

The BBC has seen details of a contract for handcuff-trained security professionals which began two days before they were deployed to Dover to remove staff from ferries.

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady said P&O's "secret plan" to sack staff with no notice was "reprehensible".

P&O said its services would not operate for the "next few days", with passengers told to use other companies.

Surely there’s a class action possible here?

People surely have a contract with P&O to be transported from A to B on a certain date? And for the next 10 days, they can’t, owing to a situation that they themselves caused, created & now find themselves in.

Anyone unable to be transported on the day in question from their contracted points of entry & exit are entitled to be transported to & from ports C & D where no other operator can accomodate to/from A & B, or to be accomodated locally at P&O total expense until such times as they can fulfil the contract. I understand this all licks in just 90 minutes after contracted departure time according to Which? Magazine.

I have not heard to P&O are offering anything, other than DFDS alternative from Dover, IF they have space available. So expect a class action to start in next few days

I read somewhere that UK employment law might not apply to persons employed in the shipping industry?

What an appalling way to treat your staff though!  I do hope Broadgage is right in that there is a lot of damage to reputation as a result, though sadly I suspect the parent company might not be too sorry to offload it or see it go under.

To quote Oscar Wilde: "The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable".

The RMT versus Gulf oil money..................they deserve each other !

If we had voted ‘remain’ could and, if so, would the same decision have been taken?

Whatever you think of RMT the P&O workers don't deserve this.  

It is the sort of action by employers that makes unions to have the characteristics you so dislike in RMT. Look at early rail accident history and you will find ASLEF fighting for its members against huge injustice from employers.

I read somewhere that UK employment law might not apply to persons employed in the shipping industry?

What an appalling way to treat your staff though!  I do hope Broadgage is right in that there is a lot of damage to reputation as a result, though sadly I suspect the parent company might not be too sorry to offload it or see it go under.

I'm not sure what the employments situation is, or was under EU law, and whether there is a difference between merchant vessel plying their trade across the globe and those vessels dapping between Dover and Calais a few times daily. Whatever the case, I can't think of a worse way of getting rid of staff that doesn't involve violence, and side with the staff dealt with in such a way.

There is no difference with regards the various UK Merchant Shipping Acts and International agreements / regulations.  These did not change with the UK leaving the EU

You have to marvel at the hypocrisy of the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, expressing his, "anger and disappointment" at the way the P&O Ferries staff have been treated, in his strongly worded letter to the CEO. Once he'd addressed it to the right person.

This is the same Grant Shapps who said this in 2013:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/we-need-to-make-it-easier-for-firms-to-sack-workers-claims-conservative-chairman-grant-shapps-8740703.html

The transport unions may well be dinosaurs, but at least they're consistent.

P&0 Ferries operate under a variety of flags. Not all are within the EU.

Unfortunately, P&O may not have followed the law - remember, it's civil law not criminal law, which can only result in compensation to the wronged, and reinstatement as an alternative. There is no criminal penalty.

Those aren't the relevant acts.

The P&O vessels are Cypriot flagged to specifically stay under EU rules.

EU employment laws offer considerably more protection.

Ask yourself why it was 800 UK employees who got the boot.

The RMT/ASLEF position, driven by dinosaur ideology rather than sense, has aged like a mackerel left out in the sun.

This article describes the Merchant Shipping (Marine Labour Convention) (Min Requirements for Seafarers) Regs 2014,  https://www.stephens-scown.co.uk/marine/do-your-staff-have-rights-as-seafarers/

That all looks pretty clear. It also looks like now is a good time to be a lawyer specialising in employment rights for seafarers.

Perhaps you would like to read what I actually wrote - I did not say that the "P & O workers deserve this",  I said that the RMT "deserved" the P & O management - and vice versa. Both sides in this dispute are equally stupid and pig-headed.
Just where did I imply, let alone say, that that the RMT has characteristics that I "so dislike" ?? I said no such thing ! Neither did I make any comment on what I might "think" about the RMT (or P & O). My comment was deliberately totally neutral - I did not identify either the "Unspeakable" or the "Uneatable" to requote Mr Wilde. When I see a fence I sit on it..................

Perhaps the senior management of P & O decided after watching the recent antics of the RMT on the rail network that the only way to resolve the problem was to get their retaliation in first ? Or is there only one side of this dispute that is allowed to be put forward ?

Indeed. It's highly unlikely the P&O staff will get any help from this government, beyond platitudes and statutory redundancy pay.

You have to marvel at the hypocrisy of the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, expressing his, "anger and disappointment" at the way the P&O Ferries staff have been treated, in his strongly worded letter to the CEO. Once he'd addressed it to the right person.

This is the same Grant Shapps who said this in 2013:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/we-need-to-make-it-easier-for-firms-to-sack-workers-claims-conservative-chairman-grant-shapps-8740703.html

The transport unions may well be dinosaurs, but at least they're consistent.

I will be surprised if P & O are found to have broken the law. They will have had access to the best lawyers that dodgy oil money can buy, and have probably acted just within the law.

Their actions are nevertheless reprehensible in the extreme. I hope that they go out of business.

I used to think that they would also haver access to the best HR▸ advice and public relations companies, but it seems I was wrong. This has the hallmarks of some of the worst practices of the 1970s, but without the original disputes.

Once again not all P&O Ferries are Cyprus registered. This may apply to the Dover fleet but not to others. The Pride of Hull is registered in The Bahamas and others are registered elsewhere. I am also unsure if the port of registration (if outside UK) is especially relevant to this discussion. Regardless the loyal P&O workforce deserves better treatment.

  No doubt it will happen in the Railway Industry when TOC's strip platform staff of their
  Safety Critical status and replace them with casual agency staff on an as required basis.

I will be surprised if P & O are found to have broken the law. They will have had access to the best lawyers that dodgy oil money can buy, and have probably acted just within the law.

P&O Ferries sackings: Change in law signed off by Chris Grayling meant P&O didn't need to tell govt, maritime lawyer says

A change in the law signed off by former Conservative minister Chris Grayling cleared the way for P&O Ferries to legally sack 800 staff last week without telling the government, a leading maritime lawyer has told Sky News.

Legislation to protect employees in the UK was amended by Mr Grayling in 2018 so that the secretary of state does not have to be notified of mass redundancies on ships registered overseas....

It seems that broadgage may be right at least on one count.

From Sky News (https://news.sky.com/story/po-ferries-sackings-change-in-law-signed-of-by-chris-grayling-meant-po-didnt-need-to-tell-govt-maritime-lawyer-says-12572920?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter)

 

The article continues

According to reports on the website of a tabloid newspaper, P&O ferries are to "cease sailings indefinitely, passengers advised to seek alternatives"

But I can not find similar reports on more reputable media. Can anyone confirm or deny ?

Back underway after an hour…

And no doubt wouldn't have made the news had it not been for the recent terrible publicity.