P And O Ferries Laying Off Workers

[Anna B]

1 hour ago, hackey lad said:

Obviously not 

That says a great deal about the state of British business under the Tories...

[geared]

Growing calls for him to resign, obviously he'll only go if there's pressure from inside his organisation to leave.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60872294

 

Very much sounds like there needs to be a shakeup of the laws these organisations are operating under.  They're definitely exploiting a loophole to employ people in the UK, but pay them far below the legal minimum wage because they sail off to France for a few hours a day.

[hackey lad]

10 hours ago, Anna B said:

That says a great deal about the state of British business under the Tories...

I don’t think you understood my reply . The government can’t sack him . The company will face recriminations 

[Anna B]

1 hour ago, hackey lad said:

I don’t think you understood my reply . The government can’t sack him . The company will face recriminations 

Sorry if I misunderstood you. 

 

I agree the government can't sack him, but surely if he knowingly broke the law there are different sanctions available. 

(Maybe a spell in prison would sharpen his mind.) To be able to ride roughshod over the legal pprocess and get away with it is not an option.

 

The sackings were unlawful. Surely they could be reversed and the workers reinstated.

[Annie Bynnol]

38 minutes ago, geared said:

Growing calls for him to resign, obviously he'll only go if there's pressure from inside his organisation to leave.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60872294

 

Very much sounds like there needs to be a shakeup of the laws these organisations are operating under.  They're definitely exploiting a loophole to employ people in the UK, but pay them far below the legal minimum wage because they sail off to France for a few hours a day.

Going to France(or Holland) is irrelevant as this illegal act also applied to UK crews sailing between UK ports.

This boss has gambled that the cost of breaking the law would be less than savings.

P&O will only change their minds if the redundancy costs, business losses and bad publicity exceed the savings.

They already have a bad image on their Belfast route and their competitors Stena and Seatruck have already increased their capacity to Scotland and England(and probably Wales).

On the Dover route P&O have been loosing business to the new Irish Ferries service and the loss of 'landbridge' business to the several new post Brexit direct ferries from the Republic to Europe.

 

[Mister M]

On 17/03/2022 at 19:57, 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.

It seems like the Government have listened to the public outrage at the treatment of the 800 workers; and are giving the P & O company "one final opportunity" to reemploy sacked staff on their previous salaries, or the government plans to make it illegal for ferry firms to pay less than the minimum wage, would likely force him to do so.

Seems like the PR from these mass sackings has had an effect.

Good.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Mister M

[Anna B]

1 minute ago, Mister M said:

It seems like the Government have listened to the public outrage at the treatment of the 800 workers; and are giving the P & O company "one final opportunity" to reemploy sacked staff on their previous salaries or the government plans to make it illegal for ferry firms to pay less than the minimum wage, would likely force him to do so.

Seems like the PR from these mass sackings has had an effect.

Good.

Hopefully, but let's wait and see if it's effective...

[geared]

Well even if he doesn't the Government can just force minimum wage to be paid when in UK waters.

 

The boss is a greedy idiot, didn't care one jot for the people he was going to sack and looks set to re-write law due to the outrage.

People like that should be barred from running a company.

[L00b]

22 hours ago, Mister M said:

It seems like the Government have listened to the public outrage at the treatment of the 800 workers; and are giving the P & O company "one final opportunity" to reemploy sacked staff on their previous salaries, or the government plans to make it illegal for ferry firms to pay less than the minimum wage, would likely force him to do so.

Seems like the PR from these mass sackings has had an effect.

Good.

It’s theatrics for PR, massaging the outrage at the form of the sackings rather than their underlying economics, only for so long as it takes for them to fade from the public eye. “Sue Gray report” number umpteen.

 

Nothing will come from this.

 

Meanwhile, Patel’s Home Office latest, and let’s not mention British visas for refugee Ukrainians. 

Edited March 29, 2022 by L00b

[Annie Bynnol]

On 17/03/2022 at 19:57, ECCOnoob said:

 

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.

From Dover: DFDS and Irish Ferries(+Chunnel)

From the Humber:  DFDS, Stena and Sea-cargo.

P&O have been loosing customers and closing routes for decades through lack of investment, leasing arrangements and  loss of 'landbridge' traffic due to Brexit. 

Ferry competition is stiff but lucrative as evidenced by the number of operators to Europe including  Stena, Seatruck, Irish Ferries, DFDS, Sea-Cargo, Brittany Ferries, Chunnel etc.

The biggest part of any UK ferry business is regular accompanied/unaccompanied freight(trailers) which are usually contracted or brokered. Apart from their UK ferries, P&O car traffic is highly seasonal with a high degree of repeat bookings and unlike Stena and DFDS not profitable. The decline of foot passenger revenue to airlines and the Chunnel has led to changes in ship design, routes and timetabling which P&O have not addressed.

 

P&O has been in decline for decades and ironically severance pay now would be a better option than nothing in a  future bankruptcy. Stena's new and bigger ships already in service  already and adding ships to their UK routes and planning a repeat of last years Holyhead Belfast service.