MARCH 17 2022 is a day that will live in infamy in the history of the British maritime industry.

This is the date on which 800 loyal and dedicated British seafarers were discarded by P&O Ferries without any regard for them, their families and their communities.

A once renowned company saw its reputation shattered in the space of a three-minute Zoom call.

This was bad, but worse was yet to come. At an appearance before the joint transport and business select committee P&O Ferries CEO Peter Hebblethwaite brazenly admitted that he had broken the law and he would “make this decision again” because he knew no union could ever accept what his company was proposing. That’s one thing he did get right.

It cannot be understated how shocking this statement was. P&O Ferries didn’t just hold its entire British seafaring workforce in contempt, but the rule of law of this country. This strikes at the heart of the issue.

P&O Ferries broke the law by not consulting with Nautilus International and the RMT, but the sanctions appear to be limited — sufficiently weak that P&O Ferries simply calculated the cost it would have to pay for refusing to consult and for unfair dismissal cases and factored that into redundancy offers.

Thus a very dangerous precedent has been set: if you are big enough, with deep enough pockets, you can pay your way out of complying with the law.

This needs to change. The government needs to urgently look at providing a statutory right to an...

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