The U.K. government set out legislation aimed at thwarting a bid by P&O Ferries to save money by firing staff without holding a compulsory consultation with unions.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Wednesday in Parliament that the new law will require employees on ferries calling at U.K. ports to be paid the country’s minimum wage, in a move to void savings from P&O’s plan to shift to agency workers.
“HMRC will be dedicating significant resource to check that all U.K. ferry operators are compliant with the national minimum wage,” Shapps told Parliament. “No ifs, no buts.”
P&O sparked uproar this month when it fired 800 seafarers, many by video call, without going through the required labor consultation. Chief Executive Officer Peter Hebblethwaite inflamed legislators further by telling them that his firm had made a conscious decision to break the rules because it knew the union wouldn’t go along with its restructuring plan.
Shapps said Hebblethwaite had “brazenly” sought to break the law, and would do so again. He set out nine measures aimed at closing loopholes and ensuring operators pay minimum wage, including plans to seek a ferry wage accord with nearby nations and to give U.K. ports powers to refuse low-paying ferry firms. He said the measures would urge P&O to think again and would show other ferry operators they would not get away with the same thing.
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