P&O protests continue

Unions are maintaining the pressure on P&O Ferries and its owner DP World over their mass sacking of 800 workers (see Fact Service issues 12 and 13).

Transport union the RMT is holding protests this week in Hull, Liverpool, and Cairnryan, with the union’s general secretary, Mick Lynch, promising “Our Fair ferries campaign will continue, and the ruthless behaviour of P&O will not be tolerated by our union in the maritime industry or anywhere else.”

Meanwhile, maritime officers’ union Nautilus International has welcomed confirmation by the Insolvency Service to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng that it has “initiated both formal criminal and civil investigations” into the circumstances of the redundancies made by P&O Ferries.

“This is a welcome and overdue development,’ the union’s general secretary Mark Dickinson commented. “The least our members could expect for a company that wilfully and blatantly broke the law.”

Meanwhile, the BBC has reported that a former P&O Ferries chef is suing the company and its chief executive, claiming unfair dismissal, racial discrimination and harassment.

According to the broadcaster, John Lansdown accuses P&O of treating him unfavourably as he is British and eligible for the minimum wage.

Thirty-nine year old Lansdown told the BBC he joined P&O Ferries as a 16 year old trainee, and that the redundancy was unlawful because there was no fair selection process, no diminished need for his job, and P&O Ferries’ parent company, DP World, is very profitable.

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/pando-demonstrations-continue-this-week

https://www.nautilusint.org/en/news-insight/news/nautilus-welcomes-criminal-investigation-into-po-ferries

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60995784