P&O Ferries sackings ‘last resort’ to save company, boss insists

The chief executive of P&O Ferries told ministers that they sacked almost 800 people without warning to save the company.

The staff made redundant will be offered a total of 36.5 million dollars.

Some employees will get 91 weeks of pay and the chance of new employment, and no employee will get less than 15 grand.

The firm denied breaking the law when workers were dismissed last week.

The compensation package on offer was said to be pure blackmail and threats by the union.

The pay in lieu of notice is not compensation, it is just a payment staff are contractually entitled to, according to the union.

The sacked workers were employed by three Jersey-based arms according to the ferry firm's boss.

The eight ships they worked on are all registered in Cyprus or the Bahamas.

Consideration was given to engaging seafarers via a third party provider but this would not have addressed the fundamental challenges of costs, flexibility and utilization in the current crewing arrangements.

The option of following a formal consultation process was rejected by the company because it would be difficult to reach an agreement on the way forward.

He said in his letter that he was aware of the distress caused by the redundant people and their families.

Restructuring the workforce in this way was never a course of action that we ever wanted to take as an organisation, and only after full consideration of all other options.

Without a fundamental change in crewing arrangements, the business wouldn't survive and would be indistinguishable from the majority of other international shopping operators.

We saw no other viable means of preserving the British business, which saved 2,200 jobs and 15% of Britain's trade capacity.

He said the compensation package offered to the affected employees was very generous and denied that they were all dismissed.

A total of 575 people were affected by the situation.

The teams accompanying the seafarers off our vessels were totally professional in handling this difficult task with all appropriate sensitivity and competency.

He said the company tried to make sure everyone got the news on the day of restructure.

All crew who were working that day were told face to face and in person. Live virtual meetings were held for crew who were rostered off, but only a small number of them were on the calls. Affected people were individually contacted by phone, as well as email and text, with dismissal letters and severance terms also shared via email.