P&O Ferries' sacking of 800 staff is a return to the dark ages of industrial relations – Scotsman comment

“I’m sorry to inform you… your employment is terminated, with immediate effect, on the grounds of redundancy. Your final day of employment is today.”

P&O may have underestimated the backlash over its decision to sack 800 staff on the spot (Picture: Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images)

It was with these words that 800 staff at P&O Ferries were told they no longer had a job.

While the shock would have been considerable for anyone, being informed they were “redundant” may have been particularly hard for the crew on board the Pride of Hull, given that on that same city’s dock outside were their replacements.

The sacked workers, along with other crews, were yesterday staging a sit-in, a form of protest reminiscent of the bitter industrial relations of the 1970s and 1980s.

In the 21st century, this is simply no way to run a business or treat people, particularly amid a soaring cost-of-living crisis.

By acting in this way, P&O Ferries, owned by Dubai-based DP World, has failed to ‘read the room’, or rather the national mood, and may have underestimated the backlash coming its way.

P&O said it was forced to act after making an “unsustainable” lost of £100 million, year on year, but critics pointed out that, in August, DP World reported a half-year profits of $475m (about £360m), so there was surely a better way of handling the situation.

Businesses should have the freedom to run their own affairs, but with that freedom comes responsibility. If they fail to behave properly, it invites governments to pass legislation to increase employee protection in a way that may be more onerous than firms would like.

Companies thinking they are safe with a Conservative government should realise that, under Boris Johnson, this is a very different party with a wide populist streak. The news that the replacement workers are from overseas will send a nervous shiver through Brexiteer Tories, particularly those in Labour’s former ‘Red Wall’ stronghold in northern England which fell largely because of support for leaving the EU.

And if Johnson does not act, Labour will see an opportunity to recover lost territory at the next election.

That is not due until 2024, but P&O may find that its lack of care for its employees also has an immediate effect, as potential passengers choose instead to travel with a company that treats its workers with decency and respect.

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