P&O Ferries

Workers were sacked via video message without any notice, with reports of crew members being removed in handcuffs from ships by security guards at Dover.

Obviously there are a lot of valid questions in relation to existing contracts, etc." She added P&O Ferries is at the "heart of this community and the way the workers have been treated is appalling". "So the action they have taken is a complete U-turn, a complete undermining of all the assurances that have been given." Meanwhile, Labour is urging the government to review "any and every contract and licence (it has) with P&O or (parent company) DP World". In a new statement, the travel company said it "understood" the "distress" its decision will have caused and felt that "reaching agreement on the way forward" was "impossible". P&O Ferries has said the "difficult decision" to sack 800 staff on the spot was made as a "last resort" - and again insisted the business would not have survived otherwise.

Company, which operates Dublin-Liverpool and Larne-Cairnryan, is making 800 UK seafarers redundant.

Until then, services from P&O will not be running and we are advising travellers of alternative arrangements.” Prior to the suspension of services, P&O operated four daily crossings each way on the route. It suggested that if services on the Irish routes are affected, other shipping companies will step in to replace it. Unions said the company had sacked all its UK sailors. – Additional reporting: Philip Georgiadis, Jim Pickard and Simeon Kerr - FT Both services are suspended after P&O said it was ceasing operating temporarily.

Trade union Nautilus International, which represents some of those fired, urged the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to “make sure the ships are safe” as ...

Peter Aylott, director of policy at the UK Chamber of Shipping, which represents the industry, told Today he was “very confident that P&O will have put procedures in place to ensure that the individuals that are going to be in control of those vessels will be familiar with the ships, familiar with the systems and will be competent and qualified to operate those vessels in a safe manner”. Mr Dickinson said the MCA must be “absolutely clear and confident that those new crew, unfamiliar with the vessels, unfamiliar with the routes, with the berths” can operate the ships safely. Trade union Nautilus International, which represents some of those fired, urged the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to “make sure the ships are safe” as the new crews are “unfamiliar” with the vessels and routes.