P&O Ferries has remained belligerent after CEO Peter Hebblethwaite admitted before parliamentary committees last week that the company knowingly broke the law through its mass firing of 800 seafarers without notice.
The ferry workers were replaced with agency staff paid on average 5.50 an hour, slashing wage costs by half overnight.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had called on the chief executive to resign last Friday, but Hebblethwaite remains at the helm as he dismisses government entreaties to drop the March 31 redundancy deadline. Those refusing to sign a non-disclosure agreement and forfeit taking out legal action against the company by that date have been threatened with a reduced severance package.
Shapps March 28 letter to P&O only spoke of the company “offering” the 800 workers their jobs back on existing salaries, making clear that nothing would be done to prevent their illegal firing. The company ruled out any such offer, insisting that slashing wages through mass sackings formed only part of its wider objective for increasing productivity by speed ups and slashing its workforce.
P&O stated, “The predicted savings we announced are not solely coming from a reduction in wages, but from removing job duplication and the benefits we will see from increased flexibility.”
The criminal character of the affair is further underscored by the inability of P&O Ferries to provide ships that can be safely put to sea. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)...
(AP) If a government hopes to function, it has to be able to enforce its laws. Our country is no exception, and in fact, the U.S. government is very good at enforcement. So when a big fraud case c...