Termination and reinstatement must be prohibited within one year of termination of P&O Ferries.

It has been described as one of the darkest days in the recent maritime history of our country.

On March 17, 2022, P&O Ferries terminated virtually all of its maritime employees without prior notice or consultation. I This week’s report is a warning of new challenges for workers in the worst period of labor relations since the 1980s.

Public anger over the company’s treatment of employees meant that the UK government could not ignore the situation and weeks after the mass layoffs Transport Minister Grant Shapps announced a nine-point plan to force Ferries to rethink this to ensure it never happens again. “.

The plan included extending the national minimum wage to ships that regularly call at UK ports, setting up bilateral minimum wage corridors with neighboring countries, cracking down on so-called fire and re-employment practices, and eavesdropping on business leaders breaking the law. . It also included a commitment to improve the working conditions and long-term welfare of seafarers, and to encourage more ships to fly the British flag.

We will mark the first anniversary of the layoffs on Friday with several protests this week as the only visible result of the government’s response in the year since has been the extension of the national minimum wage to workers on ships that regularly call at UK ports.

At Nautilus International, we believe this measure – in the form of the Seamen’s Wages Act – should be welcomed. It is not true that a sailor hired in the Philippines works seven days a week on the Dover Calais ferry for less than £5 an hour.

However, P&O Ferries’ behavior revealed much more than just low wages and poor conditions; it highlights the significant legal imbalance that exists between workers and their employers.

The loopholes that P&O Ferries took advantage of to fire their team still exist. Businesses can still make their way by consulting with workers and their unions ahead of mass layoffs.

Currently, the only penalty for non-compliance is the payment by the employer of all victims of an insurance premium not exceeding 90 days’ wages. The Cabinet wants to increase this allowance by 25 percent, but this is not enough. P&O Ferries simply factored costs into its decisions, and other companies can do the same thing, only at a slightly higher cost.

Enforcement of the law requiring companies to properly consult with employees and give them advance notice of their intentions needs to be strengthened.

P&O Ferries was required to report to the relevant authorities in the countries where each ship was registered. This was unsuccessful, but it is not clear in the legislation whether this is a criminal offence.

This law needs to be clarified to force companies that regularly operate ships in UK waters to notify the Minister for Transport and the “flag states” of the ships, making failure to comply with this requirement a criminal offense punishable by an unlimited fine.

Many of our members who were fired from P&O Ferries were asked to contact the company again through International Ferries Management, a crewing agency that was set up with a copper registered address in Malta just a month before they were fired. This is what we call fire and redeployment.

The government has adopted a legal code of conduct that encourages companies not to do so. But this is far from a necessary answer, as it won’t stop P&O Ferries or other companies from doing the same thing again. Dismissal and reinstatement—or dismissal and replacement—should be expressly prohibited.

Ministers could close these loopholes last year. Instead, the government attacked the fundamental right of workers to engage in legitimate labor disputes in order to secure higher wages and better working conditions. The P&O Ferries scandal highlighted the need to address the imbalance between workers’ and companies’ rights.

786 seafarers, their families and their communities have watched as the company’s CEO Peter Hebblethwaite and his treasurers at Dubai-based DP World have so far not suffered serious repercussions for their actions.

The state can and must act. It is working on bilateral deals with European neighbors to improve the welfare of seafarers and is exploring the creation of “minimum wage corridors” between countries – which we hope will bear fruit. We must support the pursuit of high social and labor standards and a safer mix of seafarers on board.

Nautilus International is ready to work with the government to ensure that the stated intent of the nine-point plan to prevent a repeat of the P&O Ferries scenario is met with appropriate action. It’s time for ministers to work with unions, not attack them.

Mark Dickinson, Secretary General of the Maritime Union Nautilus International