The Trades Union Congress has urged the government to make crucial changes to legislation planned to help seafarers after the P&O Ferries scandal, warning that loopholes otherwise remain that unscrupulous employers could exploit.

P&O Ferries admitted deliberately flouting the law when it sacked 786 seafarers and replaced them with low-paid agency crew last March. Despite public outrage and condemnation, and pledges of action from government ministers, the Dubai-owned operator received no fine or sanction – even though its chief executive, Peter Hebblethwaite, told MPs the firm had knowingly decided to break labour law.

Ministers instructed the Insolvency Service to consider the case, initially warning that P&O faced an “unlimited fine”. However, the Insolvency Service decided it could not bring a prosecution.

In July, the Department for Transport introduced a seafarers’ wages bill in response to the scandal, designed to ensure that vessels regularly working in British waters paid at least minimum wage.

But after a legal briefing from the Insolvency Service to maritime unions outlining the reasons why P&O was not prosecuted, the TUC has called on the government to close critical loopholes in the legislation.

In a letter to Lady Vere, the transport minister responsible for the maritime sector, it urged changes that would tackle uncertainty over whether, in the P&O example, the sacked crews legally worked in Britain, despite operating out of Britain’s...

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