{"id":1388078,"date":"2022-03-18T08:51:16","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T12:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1388078"},"modified":"2022-03-18T10:44:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T14:44:47","slug":"dubai-owned-ferries-operator-fires-all-british-crew-brings-in-cheap-foreign-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dubai-owned-ferries-operator-fires-all-british-crew-brings-in-cheap-foreign-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Dubai-Owned Ferries Operator Fires ALL British Crew, Brings In Cheap Foreign Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdubai-owned-ferries-operator-fires-all-british-crew-brings-in-cheap-foreign-workers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1388078&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Dubai-owned P&#038;O Ferries has sparked a political firestorm after taking what has been described as a \u201cdisgraceful\u201d decision to fire its 800 British crewmembers over Zoom in favour of cheaper foreign labour.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday morning, the British crew were told in a video call \u2014 without prior warning \u2014 that it would be their \u201cfinal day of employment\u201d by P&#038;O Ferries, which was bought by the Dubai-based logistics giant DP World in 2019.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>In response to the abrupt mass sacking, crews staged protests, in some cases even refusing to leave their ships before being forcibly removed.<\/p>\n<p>P&#038;O Ferries argued that, despite receiving some \u00a315 million in furlough support from the British taxpayer in 2020, the lockdowns have left the company unviable and therefore was necessary to rely on cheaper foreign workers to survive, the BBC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-60779001\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have made a \u00a3100m 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&#038;O Ferries,\u201d the company argued.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The moment P&#038;O Ferries staff in Dover were told 800 jobs are being cut across the company<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HtLQLJ5Vhe\">https:\/\/t.co\/HtLQLJ5Vhe<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/3OMvIMzCR9\">pic.twitter.com\/3OMvIMzCR9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCNews\/status\/1504473712883429382?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 17, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A steward for the Spirit of France ferry at Dover, James,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-60783784\">told<\/a> the BBC: \u201cIt feels like we have been abandoned by the company, only a few days ago they were ordering new uniforms and giving us all a pay rise and now, completely out the blue, they have sacked us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The decision to fire its British crew has sparked widespread condemnation from both sides of the political aisle in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>Brexit leader Nigel Farage <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nigel_Farage\/status\/1504491186496720898\">said<\/a>\u00a0it was a \u201cdisgrace that cheap foreign workers will replace 800 sacked P&#038;O Ferries staff. Brexit was about putting our people first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Karl Turner, the Labour MP for East Hull \u2014 one of the areas where the ferries operate \u2014\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10625397\/P-O-Ferries-Politicians-demand-firm-repays-10m-cash-took-furlough-UK-workers-sacked.html\">said<\/a> that Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s government should demand that the ferry operator return the millions in taxpayer money that went directly towards furloughing its staff during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAny money that the British taxpayer provided to that business should be taken back from them and the Government should be saying to the company \u2018get round the table with the unions and negotiate some sort of deal\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot have a situation like this whereby businesses can behave like this with British workers.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>On top of the furlough money P&#038;O received from the taxpayer, the ferry operator has also requested a \u00a3150m bailout from the government \u2014 while paying out \u00a3250 million in dividends to shareholders in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Johnson\u2019s office condemned the sacking of the 800 workers and said that the government\u2019s maritime minister, Robert Courts, has raised the issue with the chief executive of P&#038;O Ferries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe way these workers were informed was completely unacceptable,\u201d the Prime Minister\u2019s official spokesman said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cClearly the way that this was communicated to staff was not right and we have made that clear. Our sympathies are with these hard-working employees affected during this challenging time who have given years of service to P&#038;O,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Whether the Prime Minister actually intends to do anything about the Dubai-owned corporation\u2019s behaviour other than complain remains to be seen, however.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sacked P&#038;O workers have blocked the main road into the Port of Dover after the company made 800 people redundant by Zoom, and replaced them with foreign staff.<\/p>\n<p>Follow the latest: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YxN1Kj7x5t\">https:\/\/t.co\/YxN1Kj7x5t<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cWnrThESfB\">pic.twitter.com\/cWnrThESfB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LBC (@LBC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LBC\/status\/1504487340776992773?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 17, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer, for his part, said \u201cIt just makes my blood boil. It is a complete betrayal of the workforce. It\u2019s just disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just wish the Government had done what we said and strengthened employment rights so they couldn\u2019t do this kind of thing,\u201d Sir Keir said, adding: \u201cThe Government said it was going to deal with this sort of situation. It hasn\u2019t done it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elaweb.org.uk\/resources\/ela-briefing\/laval-viking-line-and-limited-right-strike\">ruled<\/a> in favour of cruise line companies seeking to replace workers with lower-paid workers from other EU member-states, in the case of Latvia\u2019s Laval and Finland\u2019s Viking Line. The ruling went on to limit the right to strike for workers demanding equal pay in their country of origin.<\/p>\n<p>While the ECJ controversially still has jurisdiction over the British province of Northern Ireland, Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s government has had over two years to update the legal framework surrounding workers\u2019 rights on sea vessels.<\/p>\n<p>More protests are expected to take place on Friday in Dover, Liverpool, and Hull, and the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has threatened to take legal action against P&#038;O Ferries, calling the sackings one of the \u201cmost shameful acts in the history of British industrial relations\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8216;The people who voted Brexit, voted for better than this. The government had better have a very very rapid think about how it responds.&#8217;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Nigel_Farage?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Nigel_Farage<\/a> reacts to hundreds of staff at P&#038;O Ferries being made redundant with immediate effect.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FarageOnGBNews?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#FarageOnGBNews<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FTgfAwjX7F\">pic.twitter.com\/FTgfAwjX7F<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 GB News (@GBNEWS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GBNEWS\/status\/1504537748681670659?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 17, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KurtZindulka\">@KurtZindulka<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dubai-owned P&#038;O Ferries has sparked a political firestorm after taking what has been described as a \u201cdisgraceful\u201d decision to fire its 800 British crewmembers over Zoom in favour of cheaper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1388078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1388078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1388078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1388078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1388078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1388078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}