A British ferry company laid off 800 people with immediate effect on Thursday, many of them over video, leading to international travel disruptions and condemnation by government officials over its plan to cut service and replace staff with cheaper labor.
The company's ferries were at a standstill on Friday. P&O Ferries, which is owned by a shipping company based in the United States, said on its website that there would be significant disruption to its services over the next few days as it became a more competitive and efficient operator.
There were protests in the English port cities of Hull, Dover, andLiverpool, as well as the Northern Irish port of Larne.
Mark Dickinson, the general secretary of the trade union that represents maritime workers, said as he was leaving a protest of about 400 people that he had never seen anything like it in his 40 years in the industry.
The latest example is the hiring and firing of people.
He said that P&O crew members were told early Thursday morning to stand by for an important announcement and that all vessels had been called to the port. Employees were told over video by a human resources official that they were losing their jobs.
P&O said on Friday that there would be no ferries between England and France and the Netherlands for the next few days. Food, medicine and other goods were likely to be delayed because of the service disruption.
In an email to staff members on Thursday, Peter Hebblethwaite, P&O's chief executive, said that the company was reducing its crewing costs by 50 percent to set the business up for growth. He said that P&O Ferries had entered a new partnership with an international crewing company, and that crew members from that company would staff ships affected by the change.
In a statement on Friday, P&O acknowledged that it had made a decision without warning or prior consultation, and that it had caused distress for staff and their families.
The video was used to inform 261 of the 800 employees who were laid off that they were affected by the notification.
Politicians were under pressure to withdraw government contracts with the firm after the firings. Robert Courts, the under secretary of state at the Department for Transport, said in Parliament on Thursday that the way P&O had treated seafarers who had given years of service to the company was unacceptable.
The reports of workers being given zero notice and escorted off their ships with immediate effect, while being told cheaper alternatives would take up their roles, shows the way in which P&O has approached this issue.
The officials in the Conservative Party said nothing. The leader of Scotland said she had spoken to the chief executive of P&O Ferries and expressed her disgust at the treatment of its workers.
He said that the modern management technique is to treat the work force like scum on the expectation that you can get away with it.
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