The government in London chooses the hard line with P&O Ferries



Apparently the London government has no intention, even in the face of the difficulties that this may entail-at least temporarily-for the UK's trade-trading, to turn a blind eye to the decision of P&O Ferries of dismiss with immediate effect 800 seafarers to replace them with less expensive foreign workers, an initiative that the same shipping company has admitted to have implemented by violating British laws ( of the 17 and 24 March 2022). Today, in fact, the transport minister, Grant Shapps, sent a very dutiful letter to P&O Ferries CEO Peter Hebblethwaite, intimidating the reinstatements of the 800 seafarers and urging him not even thinly to resign. resignation.

" Dear Peter, last week the reputation of P&O Ferries and, I'm afraid, your staff have been shredding. Not only your letters of March 22 to the Secretary of Enterprise and myself, Shapps said, referring to P&O Ferries ' reply to criticism of the company's moves by the government. ( of the March 23 2022)-they were completely unsatisfactory, but your appearance on the Restricted Committee of Transport, during which you have bluntly admitted to having violated the right of work, has proven beyond doubt your disdain for workers who have lent years of service in your company. There is no excuse for this behavior and, as I said publicly on Friday, I believe that your position as CEO, and also as a director of the company, has become untenable. "

If unused were the drastic measures taken by the shipping company to replace the crews of its own ships, unusual was also the firm reaction of the government expressed in the letter from Shapps : " in addition to revising the contracts that you have with the government and to ask the Insolvency Service (the government agency that, among the tasks, has that to investigate the conduct of the directors of insolvent companies, ndr ) to investigate your actions-the minister announced-this week I will go further. I will bring to the parliament a comprehensive package of measures to ensure that seafarers are protected against this kind of actions under way already in the intentions of parliament and this government. Through that package I intend to block the end pursued by P&O Ferries, including paying workers with a lower wage than the minimum wage. "

In the letter, Shapps points out which P&O Ferries could take in order not to come to a head-on confrontation with the government and parliament : "in the light of the above, the minister's letter continues." an additional opportunity to revoke this decision by immediately offering all 800 workers, if they really at this point wanted it, their work to the terms, conditions and the previous wage level. "To be clear, our package of measures will prevent the law from being violated, even if this happens consciously," Shapps said. In light of this, I would also suggest that the deadlines imposed on seafarers to respond to your offer of compensation measures of March 31 will come down. Since we intend to ensure that such outcomes are prevented by laws-which we will ensure that you do not own simply choose to ignore-I believe that, in any case, you will have no choice but to retract your decisions. At this point, the minister noted-to return to his own decisions could in some way also favour the beginning of a restoration of the reputation of your company to the public, much of which will prove its disgust. for the treatment reserved for workers simply by choosing an alternative operator. "

" P&O Ferries-concludes, more conciliatory but not too much, the letter from Shapps-has a long and glorious history. We are eager to help you rebuild the trust that has been lost. This government will not be looking at while the obligation to treat seafarers with due respect and with due fairness is unfathomably ignored. "