Indian seafarers hired to replace sacked P&O Ferries crews could be paid as little as 1.81 an hour, a union has claimed.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), that represented many of the 800 staff fired without notice last week, said replacement workers are being paid well below UK minimum wage.
RMT General secretary Mick Lynch said news that seafarers now on ships in British ports were allegedly to be paid $2.38 (1.81) an hour was “a shocking exploitation of those seafarers” and a “gut-wrenching betrayal of those who have been sacked”.
Mr Lynch said: “The rule of law and acceptable norms of decent employment and behaviour have completely broken down beneath the white cliffs of Dover and in other ports, yet five days into this national crisis the Government has done nothing to stop it.
“These ships of shame must not be allowed to sail. The Government has to step in now and take control before it’s too late.”
Labour MP Karl Turner has said agency workers hired to work on P&O Ferries ships have been expected to work 12-hour shifts for eight weeks at a time.
In an interview on Sunday, he said: “What P&O has accepted previously in meetings with me and the RMT, they’ve said $2.40 an hour (1.82).
“That was only admitted by them because we got some correspondence from the P&O management a couple of years ago which was leaked to the RMT.
“We produced those documents to ministers at the time. It’s grotesquely exploitative.”
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