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

Are p&o cruises the same company?

Ignore that - Google was very clear they’re different. (Selfishly I have a cruise booked in 8 weeks). Watching with concern though as I grew up not far from Dover and fear it’ll have a devastating effect on the area.

DP World is P&O's owner

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DP_World

I live on the channel and can't see any P&O ferries, so weird when you're used to seeing them out of your window all the time

I'm watching the news right now and they've said that P&O have stated they are not going into liquidation, but ensuring the viability of their future business. Which most likely means mass redundancies

That’s shit for all the staff when surely demand for the ferry is huge now?

Twitter is saying that staff have been made redundant and are being replaced by cheaper offshore labour.

shit ,now I'm worried

they must be financially up shit creek surely? Though you'd expect them to have a paddle

Brilliant!!

It does indeed seem to be about money, but then I doubt they'll be the last travel provider doing this

Just saw on twitter that all staff will be made redundant. Can't see how this can work. These are ships. Joe Bloggs can just roll up and sail one.

Oh jeez. Doesn't look good does it?

It’s probably a very public bit of revenge by their Russian backers for the sanctions we have put in place against Russia.

can't

P&O Ferries is owned 100% by DP World which is a Dubai Government holdings company. This has nothing to do with Russian money.

I don't know how that is legally possible - we don't have great employment protection in the UK, but there is some. You can't just sack everyone and get away with it and it will cost a lot in redundancy/unfair dismissal payments. As for union busting, you can't be prevented from being in a union, even if it isn't officially recognised.

Poor workers

@cakeorwine @FloraPostePosts P&O is owned, essentially, by the Dubai government through DP World. No Russian money involved.

@cakeorwine

Apparently 40% of the company is owned by Russians

So they don't want western people working on what is almost primarily their ships??

Is there any other explanation aside from Russian revenge at play here?

I suspect unfortunately there's probably some sort of way to circumvent employment law if you're sacking literally all staff- they will have looked into it I imagine. Shocking if that is the case of course but will see, seems wild. They're apparently sorting alternative carriers for those with tickets booked for today. Cripes be interesting what happens, hopefully it's something like a part takeover or something so it doesn't affect staff.

Satsuma "I don't know how that is legally possible - we don't have great employment protection in the UK, but there is some. You can't just sack everyone and get away with it and it will cost a lot in redundancy/unfair dismissal payments."

But if the company ceases to exist in its current form, it CAN happen.
I expect all will become clear very soon. And it won't be good news for the staff.

But if the company ceases to exist in its current form, it CAN happen

I suppose that is a way around it. But they said they weren't going into liquidation. But if it's about making sure shareholders make their millions at the expense of the workers they'll find a way

I was quoting an MP in Parliament. Turns out the MP was wrong.

I saw on twitter that all the staff have been made redundant (not ‘at risk’) and that ‘agency staff’ will be engaged.

Just seen now "every member of staff has been made redundant and will sue agencies to staff ships"