P&O Ferries - major announcement today. All ships in port

[cakeorwine]

Gosh. I wonder what's going on

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60779001

Agree - a new crew member or officer would normally get handover from his equivalent predecessor. Plus it is quite unusual for an entire crew to be replaced at once. So this is bound to take longer than normal - which is why (I assume) the ships are staying in port for now.

Did Irish ferries done the same thing a few years ago? I remember that they did replace all their staff with Eastern European agency workers.

@TebayOrNotTebay

he thought that the EU legislation hadn’t been bought across into our legislation and so they had none at all. This may be a reference to the private members bill last year that would have outlawed fire and re-hire. Many EU countries have such legislation. But our govt instructed their MPs to abstain so it didnt pass.

The bill concerned would not have outlawed fire and rehire. Barry Gardiner, who proposed the bill, was clear about this. All the bill did was add a requirement for meaningful consultation. Given that P&O have ignored the existing requirement for consultation, I doubt this bill would have made any difference.

I think this will come at a heavy cost to P&O.
Who would wish to use the services of a company who so publicly treats its staff with such contempt?
Not me for one!!

Who would wish to use the services of a company who so publicly treats its staff with such contempt?

Sports Direct, Boohoo... Sadly most people don't care about workers rights.

People need to vote with their feet and boycott them to show how they feel about a company that makes staff redundant and then tries to replace them with cheaper labour.

@pennwood

People need to vote with their feet and boycott them to show how they feel about a company that makes staff redundant and then tries to replace them with cheaper labour.

Unfortunately there is little competition on ferry routes.

Maybe we need a new ferry port on the South Coast to compete with Dover with more routes and companies?

There’s a port in Newhaven, near Brighton. Although I’m not sure where they sail to.
But yes, that could be a competitor for the Dover routes.

Seems crazy to make them all turn around.

@Choccy21

There’s a port in Newhaven, near Brighton. Although I’m not sure where they sail to. But yes, that could be a competitor for the Dover routes.

Dieppe

There used to be Ramsgate as well

'People need to vote with their feet and boycott them to show how they feel about a company that makes staff redundant and then tries to replace them with cheaper labour.'

If 'people' want to successfully campaign, targeting the UK ferry operation with a boycott seems ill-conceived if it is loss-making. There are more effective ways to influence and achieve results

There are also the Brittany Ferry routes from Portsmouth to Caen, Cherbourg and Santander and a few more places, which for many of us are more convenient departure points that Dover.

Natalie Elphicke has no shame. Trying to get on the bandwagon with the demo in Dover until a union member called her out for voting FOR fire and rehire. She left with a face like a bag of spanners, the hypocrite.

Can't link the video, but it's on bbc news.

There is a very interesting discussion on this topic on Gransnet today, well worth a read.

@Peregrina

There are also the Brittany Ferry routes from Portsmouth to Caen, Cherbourg and Santander and a few more places, which for many of us are more convenient departure points that Dover.

Also a bit of a monopoly on those routes

Paying the new staff £2.60 an hour apparently.

@QuebecBagnet

Paying the new staff £2.60 an hour apparently.

Is that legal?!

The Straits of Dover is the busiest shipping lane in the world (at least as I remember). I would have extreme concerns about safety with crews with no experience - even if otherwise qualified. I'm from Dover. The local feeling is off the scale - though plenty of companies are offering new employment. Natalie Elphicke can fuck off.

Thing is that ship workers like the 100% "seafarers" tax exemption, but that's because they're working under Maritime Law, so can't really expect the same level of employment protection etc. They simply can't have it both ways. If they want the legal employment protection afforded by the UK, then they need to accept to pay tax/NIC on their wages as other UK based workers. They can't have their cake and eat it.

Who wants to travel on a ship that is staffed by inexperienced staff? Not me, I think on one of the Greek ferry disasters (who I think had done something similar - replaced experienced staff with cheaper agency’) I heard that the staff were just abandoning ship and leaving the customers to fend done themselves!

@Badbadbunny

Thing is that ship workers like the 100% "seafarers" tax exemption, but that's because they're working under Maritime Law, so can't really expect the same level of employment protection etc. They simply can't have it both ways. If they want the legal employment protection afforded by the UK, then they need to accept to pay tax/NIC on their wages as other UK based workers. They can't have their cake and eat it.

This might apply to merchant navy seafarers who are away at sea for a long time, but it doesn't apply to those working on the ferries in Dover, who pay tax and NI like everyone else.

Tbh I wondered why they hadn't done this a long time ago, although this seems a cackhanded way to do it, rather than a phasing.

I spent a year or two of my life working on the 4 P&O Hull to Amsterdam/Belgium ferries. Thought it was curious that one had English crew, all the rest were cheaper Filipino or Portuguese crew. They also all had Dutch officers and staff.

It may be shitty but a lot of ship crew on plenty of other lines and the cruise ships are made up of cheaper overseas labour.

FWIW the Filipinos were the best people I'd ever met. Ma mi miss kita, pinai ako.

@Badbadbunny

Thing is that ship workers like the 100% "seafarers" tax exemption, but that's because they're working under Maritime Law, so can't really expect the same level of employment protection etc. They simply can't have it both ways. If they want the legal employment protection afforded by the UK, then they need to accept to pay tax/NIC on their wages as other UK based workers. They can't have their cake and eat it.

You are referring to the Seafarers' Earnings Deduction. This only applies if the seafarer has sufficient days where they are not in the UK at midnight - usually a minimum of 365 days. Ferry crew do not qualify.

Natalie Elphicke can fuck off.
Remember that at the next election.

Unfortunately I've lost my voting rights for the next election. I didn't vote for her last time, nor her sex pest husband the time before. She got her arse kicked this afternoon in Dover.