P&O Ferries suspends sailings ahead of `major…
P&O sacks EVERY crew member with immediate effect and sends in agency staff to sail ships but unions tell workers to REFUSE to leave and ‘stage sit in’ amid pay row – as baffled passengers are kicked off at ports
Existing staff can apply to the agency for work, in a move branded ‘outrageous’ by furious union leadersTransport Secretary Grant Shapps said his officials were in urgent talks with P&0 Ferries over the situation Firm operates four routes: Dover to Calais; Hull to Rotterdam; Liverpool to Dublin; and Cairnryan to Larne
<!–
<!–
<!–<!–
<!–
(function (src, d, tag){
var s = d.createElement(tag), prev = d.getElementsByTagName(tag)[0];
s.src = src;
prev.parentNode.insertBefore(s, prev);
}(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/1.17.0/async_bundle- -.js”, document, “script”));
<!–
DM.loadCSS(“https://www.dailymail.co.uk/static/gunther/gunther-2159/video_bundle- -.css”);
<!–
P&O Ferries today made all its crew members redundant with immediate effect and replaced them with agency staff – but unions 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 in preparation for boarding the ferries, but P&O faces a battle to persuade its existing staff to disembark due to widespread fury at its ‘treacherous’ decision.
Labour MP Karl Turner tweeted a photo of agency employees waiting to board the Pride of Hull Ferry at the city’s King George Dock.
‘New foreign crew waiting to board… RMT sitting in onboard the vessel – they will not be boarding her,’ he wrote, adding: ‘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.
It said customers with existing bookings should still show up and they will be provided with alternative transportation.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told the House of Commons he was ‘concerned’ by the situation and had contacted P&O for urgent talks.
It came as DUP MP Jim Shannon claimed in the Commons that nearly half of P&O Ferries is owned by a Russian business. ‘I understand that 40% of the holdings of P&O Ferries is held by a Russian company,’ he said.
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 that the Secretary of State intervenes to save UK seafarers from the dole queue.’
Three P&O ferries, Spirit of Britain, Pride of Canterbury and Pride of Kent moor up in the cruise terminal at the Port of Dover in Kent after the company suspended sailings
P&O said it had halted operations ahead of a ‘major announcement’ but insisted it is ‘not going into liquidation
Labour MP Karl Turner tweeted a photo of agency workers waiting to board the Pride of Hull Ferry at the city’s King George Dock. He wrote: ‘New foreign crew waiting to board… RMT sitting in onboard the vessel – they will not be boarding her,’ he wrote, adding: ‘We understand that both current officers and ratings are to be sacked’
Today confused customers took to Twitter to reveal the chaos they are facing after P&O’s unexpected announcement today. One Northern Ireland councillor (top left) was unable to travel to a funeral because of the sudden disruption
Mr Shapps said earlier today: ‘I understand they have temporarily paused their operations and that’s causing disruption at the short straits – Calais-Dover – as well as some other ports.
‘I’m working with the Kent Resilience Forum and I’ve just instructed them to become intricately involved, and other partners in this, and we’ll be taking steps later today – including ensuring that my officials will be having urgent discussions with P&O about the situation, particularly of concern for their workers.’
P&O Ferries, which transports passengers and freight, is owned by Dubai-based logistics giant DP World.
It operates four routes: Dover to Calais; Hull to Rotterdam; Liverpool to Dublin; and Cairnryan, Scotland, to Larne, Northern Ireland.
P&O made the unusual announcement in a Twitter post. It said passengers would be passed to a different operator
Sailings between Hull and Zeebrugge, Belgium, were axed in January 2021.
In an internal company statement, the ferry operator said it will be ‘making a major announcement today’ which will ‘secure the long-term viability of P&O Ferries’.
The statement added: ‘To facilitate this announcement all our vessels have been asked to discharge their passengers and cargo and stand by for further instructions.
‘This means we’re expecting all our ports to experience serious disruption today.’
Following the coronavirus outbreak, P&O Ferries warned in May 2020 that around 1,100 workers could lose their jobs as part of a plan to make the business ‘viable and sustainable’.
P&O Ferries, which transports passengers and freight, is owned by Dubai-based logistics giant DP World. Pictured: Ferries at the Port of Dover today
A queue of lorries outside Dover this morning. P&O operates four routes: Dover to Calais; Hull to Rotterdam; Liverpool to Dublin; and Cairnryan, Scotland, to Larne, Northern Ireland
A spokesman for the company said: ‘P&O Ferries is not going into liquidation.
‘We have asked all ships to come alongside, in preparation for a company announcement.
‘Until then, services from P&O will not be running and we are advising travellers of alternative arrangements.’
The company that would become P&O was founded in 1837 after signing a government contract to transport post by boat between London and the Iberian Peninsula.
P&O Ferries, which transports passengers and freight, is owned by Dubai-based logistics giant DP World
