P&O Ferries to pay £36.5m compensation to workers affected by layoffs
P&O is set to pay a total of £36.5m to workers who were fired last week in a four-minute video call.
The company said that 575 of the 786 seafarers affected by the job cuts are expected to progress with the severance offer, which in some cases amounts to £170,000 per person, Sky News first reported.
The move, reportedly the largest compensation ever handed in the maritime sector, comes after news of P&O forcing to sign non-disclosure agreements emerged yesterday.
“This has been an incredibly tough decision for the business: to make this choice or face taking the company into administration,” said a company spokesperson.
“This would have meant the loss of 3,000 jobs and the end of P&O Ferries.
“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.”
Transport secretary Grant Shapps told Parliament yesterday the operator was looking to “keep the employees quiet” and “behaving in a shameful and unacceptable way,” City reported today citing Sky News.
Shapps said the UK Government would carry out safety checks on P&O vessels, after union RMT accused the company of replacing crews with Indian workers paid £1.80 per hour.
The Maritime and Coastguard agency was instructed to inspect the ferries before allowing them to re-enter service to make sure the crews are “safe and properly trained.”
“If they are not, these ships will not sail,” Shapps told MPS “It is important that we do have the resilience to ensure that goods are able to flow but that cannot be done through crews who have not been properly trained to do the job to the highest of standards.”