At 7:39 a.m. on Thursday morning, U.K.-based P&O Ferries sent a tweet to customers waiting to get boats to Calais in northern France, Ireland and the Netherlands. “Regretfully, P&O Ferries services are unable to run for the next few hours.” It apologized for the inconvenience. Many similar tweets have followed.
What the company didn’t mention – and has still said very little about – was its decision to sack 800 of its British ship officers, captains, pilots and crew, by pre-recorded video message. It will replace them with casual staff provided by employment agencies, supposedly at half the cost. Its website still only refers to “a programme of work” to become more competitive and efficient.
“Fire and rehire” isn’t a new tactic for cutting costs by employing workers on worse terms, or replacing them with cheaper labor. But this episode stands out for its scale, its brutality and the way it tramples over British employment law.
The U.K., like many countries, has seen cuts to pay and benefits for many types of jobs in recent decades. Twentieth century-style corporate welfare that provided many people with holiday and sick pay, a well-supported pension fund, even health insurance, has been in decline – and is rarely available at all for supposedly-temporary agency staff or gig workers.
Full-time employees as a share of Britain’s total workforce fell after the 2008 financial crisis, dropping below 63% from about 65%. The percentage jumped in 2020 because many casual...
An Indian national faces multiple charges in the US for falsely claiming citizenship to vote in the 2024 elections, risking a decade in prison. Mukeshkumar Somabhai Chaudhari, an Indian national, ...