P&O Ferries Ltd (P&O) made 786 of its seafarers redundant, without prior consultation, on 17 March 2022. The company announced it plans to move to a new operating model using third-party agency workers to crew its ships.
Employees have a statutory right to redundancy pay under the Employment Rights Act 1996, as well as having a contractual or common law right to adequate notice of dismissal. P&O have said they are paying those made redundant more than the statutorily required redundancy pay, as well as up to 13 weeks salary in lieu of notice.
Some legal commentators have suggested that P&O’s actions have not met the legal definition of redundancy. Where employees have been told they are being made redundant but there is not a genuine redundancy situation, it could instead constitute unfair dismissal under Part 10 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
However, the ability of P&O seafarers to bring unfair dismissal claims may be limited by the fact that the 1996 Act only extends protection from unfair dismissal to seafarers if their vessel is registered in Great Britain.
Under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, where an employer proposes to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within 90 days or fewer, they must consult with employee representatives before the redundancies.
P&O have accepted that they were required to consult with employee representatives but...
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