P&O cancels services with 800 workers fired

Image source, Press Association

Some crew are refusing to leave their ships in protest after P&O Ferries fired 800 seafaring staff.

Workers were told the news on zoom. The tough decision was made to ensure the future of the business, according to the ferry firm.

The crew members were being replaced with foreign workers.

P&O has told passengers to use other companies because its services will not operate for a few days.

P&O said it needed to make swift and significant changes now.

P&O Ferries is not a viable business in its current state. We have made a 100 million loss in the last year, which has been covered by our parent company. This is not sustainable. There is no future for P&O Ferries without these changes.

Private security officers have been sent onto a ship in Northern Ireland to remove staff from it.

Gary Jackson, a fulltime officer onboard the Pride of Hull, said the crew were told they had lost their jobs through a pre-recorded message at 11am, but had not received anything in writing from the company.

We have not received any more information about what they will offer. The captain lifted the gangway because we can see from the ship two vans, one with agency staff and the other with security staff to remove us.

There are 14 P&O services scheduled for Monday, including three between Dublin and Liverpool, and seven between Larne and Cairnryan in the UK.

The union told members to stay on their vessels if they were to be locked out of their jobs.

We are digging in for the long haul. We are determined to fight.

A seafaring P&O employee told the BBC his colleagues refused to disembark and were instead in their cabins refusing to work.

I am very concerned about the news from P&O Ferries this morning and we will be speaking to the company today to understand the impact on workers and passengers. (1/2)

— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) March 17, 2022

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was concerned about the news and would be speaking to the company today.

Other operators still run cross Channel routes, so passengers and goods can flow, but I am working with the Kent Resilience Forum to minimize disruption.

Customers with tickets were told to sail with another ferry company after the cross-Channel operator said sailings would no longer run.

The director of capacity for the company said his staff were working to take some of the passengers in between the two ports.

P&O is one of the UK's leading ferry companies, carrying more than 10 million passengers a year before the Pandemic and 15% of all freight cargo in and out of the UK.

The demand for transport operators fell in the Pandemic, forcing them to announce 1,110 job cuts. It failed to get a 150 million dollar rescue from the government.

In its statement on Thursday, P&O said it was securing the future viability of its business which employs an additional 2,200 people and supports billions in trade in and out of the UK.

We are making sure that we can continue serving our customers in a way that they have demanded from us for many years.

The entire ferry sector has been decimated by the Covid crisis according to a maritime executive.

British and French seafarers are more expensive to hire than foreign staff.

Lauren Shaw and her husband were told there would be no sailings today by a phone call at 10am.

The couple are travelling to the port because they live four hours away and are hoping for an update soon.

Lauren said that they may be able to put them on the Stena Line if they get to the port.

Are you affected by this story? You can email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

If you are willing to speak to a journalist, please include a contact number. You can get in touch with us in a number of ways.

If you cannot see the form on this page, you can email HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk or use the mobile version of the website to submit your question or comment. Please include your name, age and location in your submission.