March 2022 was memorable in Dover for employee rights. That was the month when 500 local people were sacked. Not for something they had done wrong, and not because the business they worked for had gone out of business. They worked on P&O ferries and the management hired security staff to escort them off their ferries following a text message informing them of the sackings.
Cheaper contract labour
The management team had decided to employ cheaper labour. This, of course, meant agency workers who would come here to work on the ferries, live on them for three months at a time, and be willing to accept around half what the British workers were entitled to because their home countries’ standard of living was that much lower, and there was a lack of the labour protections that had been hard won in this country.
It wasn’t redundancy as we know it, although the staff were offered, in the end, enhanced redundancy packages. The definition of redundancy is that the work you do is no longer required. There are complex laws surrounding this in the UK, involving advance notice, consultation, and the possibility of applying for new posts created. They may not ultimately give much protection: when did we expect a consultation to mean anything other than the bosses doing what they planned on anyway?
Goverment blocked stronger labour protection
P&O cut through these laws as with a scythe. I might say now that they ploughed them up, since their actions have had no consequences despite a lot of hot air from the government and MPs who only a short while before blocked a law which would have put a stop to fire and rehire practices.
What happened is a long story. The people most affected could tell us all about it, but those enhanced redundancy packages I mentioned earlier came with gagging clauses.
The long and the short of it
On 17 March 2022, 800 people, around 600 of them based in Dover, received text messages or, in some cases, video calls informing them of the termination of their employment with immediate effect. The day before, P&O had hired agency security staff who were handcuff-trained to escort the workers off the ships, which were then laid up in port until new and cheaper workers could be flown in.
There was, of course, a media outcry, with the Conservative government expressing their shock that a company could treat its staff in such a way. They seem to have been taken by surprise by the action. The then transport minister, Robert Courts, claimed to have been told the plan on the previous evening. However, transport ministers change almost as quickly as you can drink a pint of beer, and rarely have any understanding of the maritime part of their remit.
Despite the furore, no action was taken and the sackings went ahead, with ships stranded in Dover for several weeks while the new half-price crew were acquired, and while safety issues on the ships were investigated. Passengers booked on the stranded ferries were forced to rebook with different carriers. Once again, roads in and around Dover were gridlocked as a result of an action the town had no say in.
Local MP opposed stronger employee rights
The RMT (National Union of Railway, Maritime & Transport Workers) and Nautilus International called for a boycott and demonstrations took place in Dover, Hull and London. The most memorable part of the demonstration in Dover was when Natalie Elphicke MP spoke to the assembled crowd outside the RMT building, telling us how outrageous the actions of P&O had been. The press was later full of the cruel treatment she received as people barracked her.
I must say that a small part of me felt a lurking sympathy for her, this diminutive woman, surrounded by burly men jeering at her, seeming, at first, to imagine the noises they were making were cries of support. But I joined in with the jeering because this woman had been one of the Conservatives to prevent the employment and trade union rights bill, cracking down on unfair dismissal practices, from becoming law only a few months earlier.
After the event
Anger and upset rumbled on in Dover for a long time, with sympathy for the situation of the sacked workers. Eventually, P&O increased the compensation they were offering them, on condition of a non-disclosure agreement. Nearly all the workers accepted this in the end – who can blame them with rent or mortgages to pay – but the gagging orders mean that they can’t tell us what they think. It’s my understanding that one determined person refused to accept and eventually won a substantial payout through an employment tribunal. Still, P&O must have seen this as cheap at the price.
At the time the government mentioned various things they could do in respect of P&O – government lawyers made it clear they believed the sackings broke employee rights in UK law. The parent company, DP World, based in Dubai and having ‘brass plate’ offices in various tax havens such as Guernsey, might seem untouchable, but management could be fined if the law was broken and there are always contracts that can be withheld.
In the event, it was all hot air. Did Peter Hebblethwaite, P&O managing director, care that “his reputation was in tatters” (in the words of Grant Shapps)? It seems unlikely, given the fact that despite Shapps’ warm words about both Hebblethwaite and P&O, the government spent £228mn with P&O Ferries and its parent company DP World between March 2022 when the sackings took place and August 2023.
All-time record profits
These figures are significant since Hebblethwaite claimed that the sackings were the only way to save the company, which had lost DP World £100mn year on year. It’s worth noting that DP World paid out dividends of £270mn in 2020, as well as receiving millions from the UK government under the Covid furlough scheme. Furthermore, DP World’s profits were at an all-time high only five months after the sackings.
Lessons to be learned
So what does all this say about the state of maritime employment in the UK? The government may have a lot to say about illegal management practices, but they won’t do anything about them. Apparently, we can only continue our holidays on Continental Europe and the import and exportation of goods needed if workers from poorer countries are available to be exploited, with rock bottom wages and hideous working conditions. But that’s okay as long as the investors in multinational companies get substantial profits on their investments. Sadly, it’s not just a P&O problem. Irish Ferries is going down the same route, though it is going through the “consultation process”.
French P&O employees better protected
There is another point to be made here. As well as the UK staff who were sacked, P&O employs a large number of French workers, none of whom were treated in this way. Of course, the French Code du Travail gives much greater protection against redundancy than UK workers enjoy.
It goes without saying that there are those in this country who applauded P&O for “union-busting”. Matthew Lynn, writing in the Telegraph, accused P&O of “spectacular crassness” but blamed the RMT equally for its “militancy”. But why is it classed as militancy for unions to be holding employers to account for applying labour law correctly?
Cheap day ferry – at what cost?
I guess the good news is that it means that those of us who can afford it can still have day trips to France. Tripadvisor suggests a day trip on P&O as one of the best attractions in this area. My research shows it would cost £73 for a midweek day out for two plus their car.
I will be passing up this opportunity myself since I resolved two years ago to boycott P&O.
