London, UK: P&O Ferries has returned all its ferries to port and fired 800 seafaring staff with immediate effect.
All P&O services have ceased: between Dover and Calais, between Liverpool and Dublin and between Larne and Cairnryan.
Union RMT said crew were being “replaced with foreign labour”.
P&O said that in its current state it “is not a viable business. We have made a £100m loss year on year, which has been covered by our parent DP World. This is not sustainable. Without these changes there is no future for P&O Ferries.”
Some crew are defying orders and refusing to leave their ships in protest. Private security staff boarded a P&O vessel docked in Larne Harbour in Northern Ireland, to remove staff on board, according to the RMT.
Gary Jackson, a fulltime officer onboard the Pride of Hull said crew were informed they had lost their jobs through a pre-recorded Zoom message at 11am and had not received anything in writing from the company.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted that he was “concerned” about the news and would be speaking to the company today. He said that it was “Important to note other operators continue to run cross Channel routes, so passengers and goods can flow, but I am working with the Kent Resilience Forum to minimise disruption”.
P&O carries about 15% of all freight cargo in and out of the UK. However, like many other ferry operators it saw demand slump in the pandemic leading to 1,110 job cuts. That came after P&O failed to secure a £150m bailout from the government.
In its statement today (Thursday) P&O said: “In making this tough decision, we are securing the future viability of our business which employs an additional 2,200 people and supports billions in trade in and out of the UK.
“And we are ensuring that we can continue serving our customers in a way that they have demanded from us for many years.”
