Mass dismissal of shipping staff in 2022
On 17 March 2022, shipping company P&amp;O Ferries dismissed 800 members of its shipping staff, primarily from the Port of Dover, but also from Kingston upon Hull, Liverpool and Cairnryan. The decision was met with much criticism from both sides of the political divide, particularly as a result of the speed and immediacy of the crews' termination notices, which in some cases consisted of a video call or text message, terminating their employment "with immediate effect". Also of concern was the fact that the crews were intended to be replaced with cheaper agency labour. The two main trades unions involved—the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and Nautilus International—called for a boycott of the company and organised protests around the ports, but also outside parliament. P&amp;O explained that for some time their business model had been impractical, resulting in losses of £100 million per annum, and that they needed to drastically reduce the wage bill to become profitable. Conversely, critics argued that the parent company, DP World, had paid out large dividends the previous year of £270 million, and had also made claims under the UK government's furlough scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The British government criticised the company's actions and stated that it was looking at the legal ramifications, including whether P&amp;O could be fined, and how other contracts it held with DP World were affected. The legal community was generally critical of P&amp;O for seemingly ignoring UK employment law, and several law firms commented on the likelihood of any crew members' potential employment tribunal claim being successful on a number of grounds. For its part, P&amp;O argued that to have followed the suggested consultation and other processes would have caused even more trauma to both their own staff and the broader UK tourist industry.
Background.
P&amp;O Ferries was originally a subsidiary of the shipping company P&amp;O, which was founded in 1837 as the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, sailing between the UK, Iberia and Egypt, and by 1922, Australia. P&amp;O began operating ferry services in the 1960s. In 2002, the company amalgamated their various ferry lines into one company, P&amp;O Ferries. By 2020, P&amp;O Ferries had become a leading UK ferry operator with business worth around £10 million per annum, with a 15% share of maritime freight transport before the pandemic.
The company received £15 million in grants, including furlough payments during the COVID-inspired slump, although the company announced 1,100 job cuts soon after. It is owned by Dubai-based DP World, a multinational shipping and logistics company owned by the UAE government. The BBC noted that DP World had paid dividends to its shareholders of £270 million in 2020.
In 2020, P&amp;O employed around 1700 seafarers. P&amp;O had previously closed routes—for example, two between Hull to Zeebrugge—and put them up for sale in February 2021. The company said the routes were loss-making, and the government stated that this was a commercial matter. Also reduced as a result of the pandemic were the number of Dover–Calais runs, and two freight services were cancelled.
Dismissals.
On 17 March 2022, shipping company P&amp;O dismissed 800 members of its shipping staff, including officers and ratings. The bulk of these—approximately 500—were in Dover. Staff were informed via what one staff member described as a "three-minute pre-recorded" video call the same day that their employment was "terminated with immediate effect due to redundancy". Other reports suggested that staff were given a short period of time to disembark. P&amp;O stated that only a minority—261—of the affected workers had received their notice in this fashion. The majority had face to face meetings with their local management, although in some cases SMS, a phone call or email was used. A spokesman said that "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 letter from the company to the redundant staff suggested that if any of the latter "were affected by [the news] then please do take some time to absorb it".
Some staff occupied their ships, although they were later removed. They were backed by both RMT and Nautilus International. P&amp;O prepared in advance for physical force intervention and recruited "handcuff-trained" security guards for the Dover terminal two days before the announcement. However, the company denied that the guards wore balaclavas and argued that "the teams escorting the seafarers off our vessels were totally professional in handling this difficult task with all appropriate sensitivity. Contrary to rumours, none of our people wore balaclavas nor were they directed to use handcuffs nor force."
P&amp;O suspended ferry services while they located cheaper agency workers for the Dover to Calais, Larne to Cairnryan, Dublin to Liverpool and Hull to Rotterdam routes. The firm intended to use the International Ferry Management agency, and this was revealed in a letter from chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite, which was leaked to the "Daily Mirror". Some reports suggested that the cheaper labour the company was investing in would consist of foreign workers.
The "Evening Standard" reported that Dover was in "chaos" on Thursday night, with roads gridlocked by cars and lorries attempting to leave and enter the port. Passengers at Dover were advised to use DFDS services until P&amp;O were in a position to restore theirs; those for Dublin were pointed to Stena Line services. Many passengers, though, were stranded; many complained at the lack of information from the company. Stena reported that as P&amp;O had not approached them with an agreement, tickets could not be honoured and those wishing to travel on Stena would have to be new passengers.
Criticism.
The company acknowledged the "distress" it said its employees had experienced, but said it had had to make a "tough" decision, in order to enact "swift and significant changes" which were a necessity if it was to maintain business viability. A statement said that they had made a loss of £100 million which had been covered by its umbrella company, DP World, and that "This is not sustainable. Without these changes there is no future for P&amp;O Ferries", and that "the business wouldn't survive without fundamentally changed crewing arrangements". The changes were intended to reduce crewing costs by 50%, the CEO subsequently said.
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At 11am ratings and officers were informed there was going to be a pre-recorded Zoom meeting. After that two to three-minute call, all the crew were made redundant. I've seen grown men crying on there because they don't know where they're going to go from today.
Gary Jackson, RMT representative, "Pride of Hull"
A number of the agency workers—among them former P&amp;O staff—hired to replace the crews in Hull walked off the job. One, Mark Canet-Baldwin, arrived at Cairnryan only to turn around. He told reporters, "I felt I can't do it. I felt sick to my stomach. And I walked off. Two others came with me. It's just wrong." P&amp;O's actions attracted cross-party criticism. In Dover, local MP Natalie Elphicke marched alongside the RMT's General Secretary and senior assistant general secretary, as well as the former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, which a Channel 4 report described as "unlikely bedfellows". A government statement described the mass dismissal as "wholly unacceptable". The parliamentary undersecretary for transport, Robert Courts said "reports of workers being given zero notice and escorted off their ships...shows the insensitive way in which P&amp;O have approached this issue", and that he was "extremely concerned and frankly angry at the way workers have been treated by P&amp;O". It was, however, unlikely that the government would support nationalising the company, stated Dowden.
Huw Merriman, chair of the House of Commons transport select committee expressed concerns as to the legality of the company's actions, and told the government to "ensure that this appalling employment transaction cannot be completed". The Department for Transport reported that neither Courts, nor the Secretary of state, Grant Shapps, had had prior warning of the company's intentions. However, by Friday it was reported that, in fact, the government had learned of P&amp;O's plans on Wednesday night. A Downing Street spokesman reported that, while the DfT's senior officials had been informed, they had restricted propagation on commercial sensitivity grounds, and this had included the Prime Minister. He also did not think it had come up for discussion when the PM visited the United Arab Emirates the previous Wednesday. Shapps later said that, while he had been made aware of the plan on Wednesday evening, he had assumed it would involve the same in-depth consultation as the previous layoffs.
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;We expect companies to treat their employees fairly. It is only in extreme circumstances that employers need to make extreme decisions to secure the future of their businesses if all other avenues have failed, including negotiations between employer and employees. We don’t believe this was the case for P&amp;O staff. We are looking into this very carefully.
The staff's trade union, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said it was one of the "most shameful acts in the history of British industrial relations". The union asked that the government use influence to pressure a reversal of the decision, while there were broader calls for DP World to be excluded from bidding for any future free ports. Manuel Cortes of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association said the company "should be ashamed of themselves".
The TUC General Secretary, Frances O'Grady said it was "reprehensible" to sack staff with no notice period. She also demanded the P&amp;O "suffer severe consequences—with ministers increasing the legal penalties if necessary". The Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, called the company's strategy a "gangster practice", while a member of Medway Council called on golfer Ian Poulter to sever his ties with DP World, for whom he acted as an ambassador. The head of the European Transport Workers' Federation in Brussels, Livia Spera, said it was "astonishing that this can happen in a major developed country like the UK". In Northern Ireland, Democratic Unionist Party politicians called on the government to maintain services between Larne to Cairnryan, while Nicola Sturgeon expressed "utter disgust" at the dismissals.
Staff observed that the timing seemed odd, noting that while it was the sort of thing that happened at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions were lifting around Europe and the busy Summer period was approaching. Another member of staff queried why the company had been "ordering new uniforms and giving us all a pay rise" a few days earlier.
Ruston Tata of DMH Stallard, suggested that P&amp;O's public image would suffer as a result of the public perceiving their premeditated plan as an over the top reaction. Likewise, Ann Francke, head of the Chartered Management Institute, bluntly stated that the company had "got it very wrong" and described their management practices as being from "another era" Conservative Party co-chair, Oliver Dowden commented that he felt, "frankly, a revulsion at the kind of sharp practices from P&amp;O. There has been a complete lack of engagement, a lack of prior notice or indeed any empathy whatsoever for the workers." Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury in a joint statement with Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Bishop of Dover, said "ill-treating workers is not just business. In God’s eyes, it is sin." They also suggested that P&amp;O's timing was intended to take advantage of the distraction provided by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
RMT complained that, while they requested talks with the company, they had heard nothing from P&amp;O, even though the union believed that the cuts must have taken a long time planning. RMT also argued that, if the company was in financial trouble, this was due to it having "been financially mismanaged for years". The union called for a mass boycott of P&amp;O; this was backed by Opposition MPs including Karl Turner, of East Hull and Louise Haigh, the shadow transport secretary. Turner argued that the government should reclaim the furlough money it had paid previously, while Haigh suggested P&amp;O have its licence to operate withdrawn and remove the company from the transport advisory group. Turner, along with fellow Hull MPs Emma Hardy and Diana Johnson, also called for the renaming of the "Pride of Hull". The Minister of Defence James Heappey, also backed the recouping of P&amp;O's furlough money, although Channel 4 understood this to be not a likely proposition. RMT general secretary