P&O Ferries’ new agency crew ‘are paid just £2.60 an hour’, as devastated ex-staff blast ‘money grabbing’ mass sackings
NEW agency crew hired by P&O Ferries could reportedly be paid as little as £2.60 an hour to replace old staff.
Workers from Eastern Europe have allegedly been drafted in to plug a £100million company hole after P&O sensationally axed 800 workers to make room for cheaper staff on Thursday.
And Billy Jones, branch secretary for Humber Shipping for the RMT, said P&O had turned its vessels into "modern slave ships".
According to the publication, International Ferry Management, a Maltese firm that will be responsible for new crews on P&O Ferries' ships, was set up just four weeks ago.
And safety fears were raised today about new crews being "unfamiliar" with both vessels and the routes they would be taking.
Mark Dickinson, general secretary of trade union Nautilus International, described an "intensely worrying situation".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There are serious safety concerns, which is why the company cannot reintroduce services with the lower-paid agency crew that they've recruited via this company called International Ferry Management of Malta."
P&O employees were ambushed yesterday morning via Zoom and reportedly given just "five minutes to get their stuff and get off the ship".
Security teams in balaclavas were then drafted in to remove P&O staff — some given just five minutes to gather gear from quarters.
Defiant captain Eugene Favier refused to leave his Pride of Hull ferry in protest and barred cops and security from boarding.
Other workers blocked roads near Hull and Dover as queues of lorries built up.
Passengers were marched off ships, or stopped from boarding, leaving thousands stranded.
No.10 said it was given no warning, and the PM’s spokesman said the cuts were “wholly unacceptable”.