When P&O Ferries decided to sack 800 (786 to be precise) workers, in the case of some by Zoom, there was a justifiable outcry and questions about breaches of employment law. This is no way to treat staff, especially not those who worked through the pandemic, and in this febrile post-Brexit world, some on the Remain side saw this behaviour as a consequence of Brexit.
In fact, the UK has not taken advantage of its post Brexit-freedom to depart from EU-derived employment law. That law was carried over into UK law as retained EU law and has not been amended.
The reality is that UK employment law on dismissal was and still is flexible: it is easier in the UK to fire employees than elsewhere in Europe, and that’s what P&O Ferries seems to have done. To use a contract lawyer’s term, they’ve made an ‘efficient breach’.
Let me explain.
We’ll begin with the two exam questions. First, does UK law apply to the dismissals? When it comes to P&O Ferries, UK employment law will apply, irrespective of what law governs the contracts, as ‘mandatory rules’ (and P&O does not appear to deny this). UK law will apply to the P&O staff provided that those sacked come within the territorial scope of UK law (that is they ordinarily work in Great Britain).
Second, has P&O Ferries breached employment law? There’s a fog of uncertainty around the precise facts but the following is likely to apply.
For those employees with two years plus service:
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