P And O Ferries Laying Off Workers

[Guest]

1 minute ago, El Cid said:

In my workplace we voted to strike over pay, over the 2021 pay rise. Less than 50% of people voted, so there could be no strike action. I dont have a problem with that, we got 1.75% this month.

Unions are too expensive.

Exactly, the government insists on a larger majority for union action whilst ignoring the fact that they are usually voted into power on much smaller majorities than that.

They think that is fair.

[crookesey]

2 hours ago, rogets said:

Can trybuneral not stop this? 

 

3 hours ago, Organgrinder said:

For once, I agree with you.

Ever since Thatcher started dismantling the unions, Major, Blair and every government after has carried on this task.

Blair, Brown and New Labour, were Tories underneath it all and believed in all the Tory policies such as privatisation.

I don't think that Labour will fully recover now because Starmer is another Blairite too and even tried to stop Brexit when Labour had promised to honour the referendum result.

With a government as useless as the present one and with the wholesale lies they tell, Labour should be able to waltz into power easily and that's still not the case.

Apologies guys, if he agrees with me I must be wrong.

[Anna B]

5 hours ago, Organgrinder said:

For once, I agree with you.

Ever since Thatcher started dismantling the unions, Major, Blair and every government after has carried on this task.

Blair, Brown and New Labour, were Tories underneath it all and believed in all the Tory policies such as privatisation.

I don't think that Labour will fully recover now because Starmer is another Blairite too and even tried to stop Brexit when Labour had promised to honour the referendum result.

With a government as useless as the present one and with the wholesale lies they tell, Labour should be able to waltz into power easily and that's still not the case.

Which is exactly why l supported  Corbyn. He had the nouse to see this coming and wanted to do something about it when there was still time.

 

 

[Dromedary]

2 hours ago, iansheff said:

Well this headline from the link below says it all. 

Replacement P&O crews will be offered wages as low as £2.60-an-hour', it's been claimed.

 

P&O Ferries new foreign crew paid only '£2.60-an-hour' and 'don't have clearance to sail' (msn.com)

I think that is just hearsay as in the UK we have a minimum wage act and as they are a UK company they would have to comply with it. As of April 1st 2022 that is £9.50 per hour for those 23 or over. It would be interesting to know what the pay they received before they were sacked.

 

16 minutes ago, Anna B said:

Which is exactly why l supported  Corbyn. He had the nouse to see this coming and wanted to do something about it when there was still time.

Corbyn may have done but unfortunately he was in the minority hence he and Labour are not in power.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Dromedary

[cgksheff]

36 minutes ago, Dromedary said:

I think that is just hearsay as in the UK we have a minimum wage act and as they are a UK company they would have to comply with it. As of April 1st 2022 that is £9.50 per hour for those 23 or over. It would be interesting to know what the pay they received before they were sacked.

 

Minimum wage does not apply on international routes.

Agency seafarers have not been employed in UK.

[ECCOnoob]

3 hours ago, Anna B said:

Which is exactly why l supported  Corbyn. He had the nouse to see this coming and wanted to do something about it when there was still time.

 

 

Oh come off it. You are as deluded as the failed leader you mourn and worship over.

 

The stupid old fart had 30 plus years in Parliament whilst reaping his nice fat paypacket to 'do something about it' and didn't. What makes you think if he had a smidgen of power he would have succeeded. He showed his failures, weakness and incompetent actions multiple times.   

 

He soon showed his true colours once he realised there is no chance of him getting into power, and now he has been kicked out of the party all together.  Good riddance. About time the rest of his deluded disciples follow him.

Edited March 19, 2022 by ECCOnoob

[crookesey]

13 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

Oh come off it. You are as deluded as the failed leader you mourn and worship over.

 

The stupid old fart had 30 plus years in Parliament whilst reaping his nice fat paypacket to 'do something about it' and didn't. What makes you think if he had a smidgen of power he would have succeeded. He showed his failures, weakness and incompetent multiple times.   

 

He soon showed his true colours once he realised there is no chance of him getting into power, and now he has been kicked out of the party all together.  Good riddance. About time the rest of his deluded disciples follow him.

Correct, but at least he has his three million quid to count, he stepped Labour back a generation, the public sector lefties got what they deserved, that being nowt.

[Dromedary]

2 hours ago, cgksheff said:

Minimum wage does not apply on international routes.

Agency seafarers have not been employed in UK.

Wow, hard to believe but also true... Sorry, my mistake on that! 

[Delbow]

7 hours ago, Organgrinder said:

Exactly, the government insists on a larger majority for union action whilst ignoring the fact that they are usually voted into power on much smaller majorities than that.

They think that is fair.

And unions need to give two weeks notice of a strike or risk having all of their assets seized, whereas P&O can break employment law and just get a fine. The balance is all wrong.

[ECCOnoob]

1 hour ago, Delbow said:

And unions need to give two weeks notice of a strike or risk having all of their assets seized, whereas P&O can break employment law and just get a fine. The balance is all wrong.

Yeah you say it Brother. They should just let the whole company collapse and put all few thousand employees out of jobs instead.   That will show them lot in the Ivory Tower!  Up the workers! ......right?

 

The only balance that should matter in this instance is the emergency sacrifice of one part to try and protect the much larger remainder with higher number of employees.

 

Watching the news, I do find it ridiculous the amount of ill-informed opinionators, ego filled politicos and now even the local god botherer demanding boycotts,  demanding class lawsuits without having a clue about extremely complex business and legal issues. 

 

The company itself freely admits it was a drastic and last resort measure which was done to try and slow its financial obliteration.   This is not some oversimplistic black and white issue. It certainly wasn't the first company to do these things and it will not be the last.

 

Of course it's upsetting, shocking and unfortunate for all those 800 employees but someone answer me this.....  would they have preferred it if the entire few thousand workforce were all redundant but were given the appropriate union approved consultation and notice period? Would that suddenly make it better? Would it ease the pain? I highly doubt it.

 

What exactly is the problem with buying off the penalty of immediately removing 800 if it results in saving the jobs of the remaining couple of thousand.  That looks like a sound commercial decision to me. But then again in my job I don't have an option to be all emotive and hysterical when giving decisions.

 

I'm sure the company's PR has been dented for a while, but as I said before, we are all selfish hypocrites deep down and as soon as a company restarts with services that we want to use with timetables that suits our needs, we will be back on board. 

 

Joe Public don't really care whether their onboard bartender, or the nice lady dishing out the chips in the self serve cafe really comes from. They don't really care about how much less they are getting paid an hour compared to the British citizen made redundant.  As long as  the business is running and the fares keep at a price that customers are willing to pay. That's it.

 

People do a lot of talk about ethical business, and of course there are those who volunteer to boycott and pay more but that is still very much a minority.

 

For the masses, we don't actually care that much. What P&O have done is nothing that different to most business operations in the modern world - which we have embraced with open arms. Ask yourself if you really care about welfare of employees when you are buying your £2 t-shirt or cheap electronics from a well-known online retailer.

 

Oh it's all so disgraceful we scream when it happens to our own.  Of course there is anger and upset about how this could have happened on our shores to our people.  But, that's soon forgotten come summertime when we are flocking to our bargain basement Airlines to Eastern European or developing Far East countries where the beer is dirt cheap, palatial hotel rooms are dirt cheap and the dancing girls are dir.....

 

.... well, you get the point.

Edited March 19, 2022 by ECCOnoob