P&O staff offered severance package
P&O Ferries have offered their former employees a combined severance package of £36.5million.
Hundreds of P&O employees were sacked in the most dramatic of fashion last week. The manner of the sacking - in which staff were informed of their fate via a zoom call - led to severe criticism of the company by seafarers' trade unions', UK central and devolved governments.
Details of the redundancy package on offer were sent to the UK government and confirmed by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.
P&O said it is paying (subject to settlement agreement) 2.5 weeks’ uncapped salary for each year employed rather than the statutory 1 or 1.5 weeks and up to 13 weeks’ salary in lieu of any notice period. In addition employees are to receive 13 weeks salary in lieu of consultation.
The total value of the settlement is £36,541,648. P&O said 575 of the 786 former employees are in discussions to progress with the severance offers.
A spokesperson for the ferry company added: “This has been an incredibly tough decision for the business. In making this hard choice, we have guaranteed the future viability of P&O Ferries, avoided large-scale and lengthy disruption, and secured Britain’s trading capacity.”
Previously P&O Ferries have said they fired 800 staff to ensure the future of the company, which was at risk due to a £100million year on year loss.
News of the maritime workers sacking by P&O Ferries has been met with incredulity by employees, their unions and government alike.
Private security forcibly removed some crew members from what had been their places of employment until Thursday afternoon’s announcement. This led to calls for both, boycotts and staff lock ins. The latter failed to materialise as all staff departed all ships.
News that staff were notified of the termination of employment via a zoom call has been met with widespread anger by Unions and MPs alike.
During that Zoom call staff were informed: “They would be replaced by a third party crew provider and therefore your final day of employment is today.”
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch had called on members to remain aboard ferries to protect their jobs: “We have instructed our members to remain onboard and are demanding our members across P&O’s UK operations are protected and that the Secretary of State intervenes to save UK seafarers from the dole queue.”
As some ships docked to disembark passengers, replacement crews - hired to replace sacked staff - were waiting quayside to board.
P&O Ferries are owned by Dubai based DP World who have stated that they recorded a year on year loss of £100million due to the absence of passengers during the pandemic.
In order to keep freight flowing during the pandemic, the UK Government subsidised the company with more than £30million. At the time this was described as "controversial taxpayer rescue of P&O."
A £270 million dividend was also paid to the company shareholders DP in 2020.
DP World re-acquired P&O Ferries in 2019 for £322m, after having sold it less than a decade earlier.
