P And O Ferries Laying Off Workers

[Anna B]

3 hours ago, El Cid said:

Companies have a duty to their share holders. In 2020 P+O laid off 1,100 people and it says it will continue to require forbearance from creditors.

This company is just trying to stay-afloat!

Surely the company also has a duty to its workers, some of whom have worked for the company for 30+ years. 

Basically this is part of the global race to the bottom for workers. 

 

The  UK has one of the highest costs of living in the world, and rising rapidly, yet workers are now expecting workers to work for peanuts.

 

I would imagine Hull isn't overwhelmed with job vacancies at the moment and there'll be even less going forward. This will be devastating.

 

Just how are people supposed to manage? 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Anna B

[Mister M]

3 minutes ago, Anna B said:

Surely the company also has a duty to its workers, some of whom have worked for the company for 30+ years. 

Basically this is part of the global race to the bottom for workers. 

The  UK has one of the highest costs of living in the world, and rising rapidly, yet workers are now expecting workers to work for peanuts.

I would imagine Hull isn't overwhelmed with job vacancies at the moment and there'll be even less going forward.

 

How are people supposed to manage? 

Some people travelled from much further afield than Hull to do their work only to be told they're not needed anymore. No train fare home provided.

 

Basically we're going back to the 1930s, where men queued up at the docks in the morning, and if they weren't needed, they were sent packing.

Edited March 17, 2022 by Mister M

[Mister M]

42 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

It's certainly a shock and very upsetting for those poor workers affected. But the harsh reality is corporations do not make record profits like that without being absolutely ruthless in their business operations the type of which we are seeing with P&O.

 

Fact is, the P&O Ferries subsidy has made a catastrophic loss reaching the hundred millions. Something had to be done and when a single part of the body becomes infected the decision has to be made to chop it off before it it ruins the rest of the system. Surely for those in dire straits affected by this, a job with either the agency or whoever takes over the operations is better than no job at all.

 

Whatever the public perception and PR impact, it is clear that it was simply not sustainable to carry on with such losses. The alternative would be another Flybr or Thomas Cook or Debenhams with the entire company collapsing.  

 

I found the boycotting quite interesting, most people travelling on ferry services are focused on simply the first available one suitable for their time schedule. Dover/calais and Hull /Rotterdam particularly doesn't realistically have masses of competing suppliers so for all the hot air and outrage on Twitter I suspect that come holiday season most will forgive, forget and be back to status quo.

 

The public are fickle. Seen it all before with the whole 'Boycott Amazon', 'Boycott Tesco', 'Boycott British Airways' 'Boycott Southern Rail'.   It's business. Whether we like to admit it or not we average people in the street are just as ruthless and more than happy to exploit whenever it suits us.

Their parent company D&P Holdings made £683m profit last year, not to mention the £10 million it recieved from the Government in furlough

[ECCOnoob]

46 minutes ago, Anna B said:

Surely the company also has a duty to its workers, some of whom have worked for the company for 30+ years. 

Basically this is part of the global race to the bottom for workers. 

 

The  UK has one of the highest costs of living in the world, and rising rapidly, yet workers are now expecting workers to work for peanuts.

 

I would imagine Hull isn't overwhelmed with job vacancies at the moment and there'll be even less going forward. This will be devastating.

 

Just how are people supposed to manage? 

They are. They are stopping the entire company from collapsing by trying to slow a £100+ million pound year-on-year loss.   As they have said in their own statement taking this drastic measure is about trying to save jobs of the remaining 2200 staff.

 

What exactly do you think they're supposed to do?    The can't force passengers onto their ferries at gunpoint.    It's business.

36 minutes ago, Mister M said:

Their parent company D&P Holdings made £683m profit last year, not to mention the £10 million it recieved from the Government in furlough

So what? The parent company is nothing to do with the massive loss making ferry company subsidiary.

 

They quite rightly took furlough money because the law entitles them to do so - as did many other businesses up and down the land. I'm sure if we wanted to be really judgemental we could argue there were plenty of people who happily took their furlough money who could have quite easily survived on their savings or other assets without taxpayer handouts. Works both ways.....

 

How many more times do I need to say it, it's business.  DP are doing exactly what any other major corporation would do.  When one division starts to fail you don't keep propping it up and potentially jeopardize the rest of the operations.

Edited March 17, 2022 by ECCOnoob

[El Cid]

31 minutes ago, Anna B said:

The  UK has one of the highest costs of living in the world, and rising rapidly, yet workers are now expecting workers to work for peanuts.

Did you just invent that or is it actually true?

[Mister M]

36 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

They are. They are stopping the entire company from collapsing by trying to slow a £100+ million pound year-on-year loss.   As they have said in their own statement taking this drastic measure is about trying to save jobs of the remaining 2200 staff.

 

What exactly do you think they're supposed to do?    The can't force passengers onto their ferries at gunpoint.    It's business.

So what? The parent company is nothing to do with the massive loss making ferry company subsidiary.

 

They quite rightly took furlough money because the law entitles them to do so - as did many other business is up and down the land. I'm sure if we wanted to be really judgemental we could argue there were plenty of people who happily took their furlough money who could have quite easily survived on their savings or other assets without taxpayer handouts. Works both ways.....

 

How many more times do I need to say it, it's business.  DP are doing exactly what any other major corporation would do.  When one division starts to fail you don't keep propping it up and potentially jeopardize the rest of the operations.

Was the parent company something to do with P & O when it was making huge profits? I suspect the answer is yes.

I read that P & O have some juicy contracts with the Government. Hopefully ministers will be looking into terminating these in the coming days.

Interesting that P & O have sacked none of their French staff.

Yes I know you keep saying it's business, but even businesses have to abide by the law. And other businesses didn't do what  P & O did. For example many companies handed back £1.3 billion worth of furlough and other grants during the pandemic that they did not need. It was business to send little children up chimneys in Victorian England - didn't make it right though.

I don't know why you're defending these shysters....

Edited March 17, 2022 by Mister M

[steved32]

All this reflects The Mighty Boris and his don't give a f... for the workers!

 

Red line promises?  Boris the liar, duped millions.

[hackey lad]

Nurse , Nurse  hes out of his bed again 

[El Cid]

1 hour ago, HumbleNarrator said:

I bet you thought really funny in your own little world didn't you?! 🙄

Various companies would have gone bust without the Governments support, PandO would have been well and truely sunk!

Welcome to Yorkshire went into administration.

[redruby]

I think P&O have crossed a line re. ‘it’s business’ argument.  There are limits to what decent people will tolerate in the name of free markets. 

 

 

“Former transport minister Sir John Hayes criticised the "capricious, careless, callous" decision by P&O Ferries, and suggested the government should "recover any monies granted to P&O during the pandemic" in a bid to reverse it.

P&O claimed almost £15m in government grants in 2020, which included furlough payments for its employees.

Sir John added: "Don't let anyone tell me this is the free market. The free market put little girls in factories and boys down mines, and both at risk on the high seas; we thought those dark days had gone - P&O are either too dim to see that or too dastardly to know it."