P&O Ferries suspends sailings

Just on BBC News now. All 800 staff informed by a pre recorded Zoom vid. Staff refusing to leave ships in protest. Private security firms been sent in to remove them.

Right PR disaster is this.

 

Used P&O Hull Rotterdam/ Hull Zeebrugge (the latter stopped some time ago quite a few times to save the slog from Dover after crossing Europe by car when we visit the UK. Won't be using them again!

Two things though.. I am amazed (without wanting to get into the usaul political dogfight on here) that instant dismissal the way they have done it with no warning and immediately replacing the staff with Agnecy (cheaper) labour is even legal. Disgusting way to handle employees.

As regards foreign labour everytime we travelled on P&O ferries Rotterdam / Hull pre Covid, vitually every member of the crew I spoke to was either Portuguese one ship and Philippino on the other. The last journey in October was mainly mixed as many had been merged from the defunct Zeebrugge route but also downsized due to a very sparse number of passengers on board. They also seemed to have quite a few 'newbies' and it was very dis-organised in the Brasserie although I do not blame the waiters as the management and kitchen determine when food goes out. The menu was poor andlimited choices , food very mediocre and they did not seem to know what they were doing. Our mains arrived part way into our starters which we obviously sent back. As the main was Salmon which we asked for 'Pink' by the time they served it it was cold. but dry on the outside.
Breakfast in 'The kitchen was horrendous, cold eggs and greasy food and the coffee was dreadful. We opted for the Brasserie upgrade for breakfast on the return journeywhich, in fairness was much better. Same staff on duty from Evening meal and seemed a bit more on the ball. Friendly and helpful but hardly anyone to serve so they should be.

As marketing and publicity, this move makes Ryanair look like a philanthropic employer. Having travelled both ways in October on a ' ghost ship' devoid of passengers and even more concerning for P&O, very little freight given Covid, shrinking market with the Tunnel being competitive, the time of year and the still to be resolved Brexit issues and now huge hike in Diesel costs it is understandable that the ferries must be losing money but the way they have gone about it the wrong way. An absolute marekting disaster as they do need fare paying passengers as well as Freight.

 

Interesting...Are you banned then even if the natural gas(metano?) tank is emptied first?

EDIT: Just looked it up and it does indeed ban LPG even if the tank is empty) Learned something new today then. So presumably caravan owners are buggered too regarding the tunnel?

 

Edit:
Just asked question of contact in P&O Cruises and Jimmy Viz is correct they re registered ships in Bermuda to access similar laws to cruise ships.
There was an article from a year ago about it where there was talk of Ferries from Hull was going to bring in Filipinos as they could employ them for just over £1 an hour.

 

P&O are owned by DPWorld, a Dubai based company, don't think workers rights or poor PR is even a concern in their minds.

 

Not sure about caravan owners to be honest. I didn't realise LPG would be banned but not the end of the world I guess. Shame they cant just make you prove that your LPG tank is empty or something, oh well.

 

i always understood that it was the job made redundant and not the person

 

What a rotten way to treat some, no doubt, long serving crew members. Some will have been with P&O all their lives and they just get brushed aside like that.

 

£15m in grants during covid & paid out £270m in dividends in 2020

 

It was, then we left the EU and now you can be made "redundant" and replaced in the same job - Tories didn't like that part of EU employment role that prevented this so we never re-adapted it.

 

that’s not completely correct. You can offer an employee a reduced contract and if they refuse after a period of statutory discussion you can fire them but if you make a post redundant you can’t them rehire into that post. But this isn’t covered by U.K. law so a moot point really.

 

https://www.niferry.co.uk/po-ferrie...over-vessels-from-the-uk-to-cypriot-register/

 

Pretty disgraceful behaviour from P&O.

I notice their parent company have been awarded 2 of the "freeports" the government have dished out. I'm sure we'll see the govt act on this *ahem*

 

In fairness i remember given a redundancy notice in 2010 (after all those years of Labour rule) as the employer at the time basically wanted to change everyone's contract. It was take the new contract or redundancy. It worked out well for the some of the older end long serving staff but for the majority It was fairly poor.

 

I'm sure when Stagecoach took over the Sheffield Road depot from tracky they did something very similar. Don't think it's owt to do with Brexit.