Grant Shapps will hold crisis talks with rival operators of P&O Ferries this week as the Government fights to avoid chaos at UK ports over the Easter holidays.
The Transport Secretary will meet with DFDS and Stena Line on Monday after P&O’s millionaire chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite admitted the company ‘chose’ to break the law when it sacked nearly 800 workers last week.
DFDS, one of Europe’s largest shipping operators, is likely to be asked to fill the void left by P&O until Government officials sign off on the use of ferries staffed by agency workers.
Stena in Sweden, an operator of Swedish ships, already has additional vessels between Britain & Ireland.
The move comes as a result of a detention of a ferry ship operator by the ferry company for being “unfit to Sail” in Northern Ireland, amid fears it was trying ‘to sail”.Training is too fast for inexperienced crews’
Discussions are also expected to take place over the future of P&O and plans to speedily introduce new legislation ensuring seafarers will be covered by the UK minimum wage.
According to The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Shapps appears to have met with French and Dutch governments to discuss minimum wage agreements to pay for ‘foreign-flagged’ vessels.
The new laws will be tabled in Parliament this week after Mr Shapps said ferry operators were using a ‘loophole’ to pay employees less than the hourly wage of £8.91 – with agency staff earning an average of £5.50.
It comes as Mr Hebblethwaite has faced calls from MPs to resign from his ‘untenable’ position during a dramatic joint evidence session in Parliament this week.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps (pictured on Wednesday) will hold meetings with the rivals of P&O after calling for its chief executive to resign
Peter Hebblethwaite, P&O Ferries chief executive, answering questions in front of the Transport Committee and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee in the House of Commmons earlier this week
Irish trade union workers during a rally at Dublin Port outside the P&O terminal to send support to the hunderds of seafarers sacked in recent days
The P&O Ferries operated European Causeway vessel in dock at the Port of Larne, Co Antrim, where it was been detained by authorities for being ‘unfit to sail’
‘I’d do it again’: What P&O Ferries’ millionaire boss Peter Hebblethwaite told MPs while giving evidence
The chief executive, who is paid £325,000 to run P&O Ferries and lives in a plush Cotswold farmhouse worth more than £1.5million, also told the session that he ‘would do it again’ – and refused to say if he could live on the new workers’ £5.50 hourly wage.
However, he told the sacked employees that “this kind of dismissal couldn’t and wouldn’t happen again”
Darren Jones, chair of the Commons Business Committee said that he should be prosecuted and fined.
Labour has written to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng asking whether the Government will seek the removal of P&O Ferries’ chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite as a director under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.
Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said the ‘shameful misconduct of P&O Ferries has ruined livelihoods’ as she called for the sacked workers to be reinstated and for Mr Hebblethwaite to be ‘barred’ as a director for his role in the crisis.
Over the past week, protests took place in UK ports to show solidarity with people who have lost their jobs.
To blockade entry points, union members and activists gathered in ports at Liverpool, Hull and Dover.
Some demonstrators were seen carrying banners saying ‘Save our seafarers’ while others demanded that P&O’s ferries be ‘seized’.
Protests are taking place at ports in Liverpool, Hull and Dover over the sacking of hundreds of seafarers by P&O Ferries, as calls grow for the company’s boss to quit. Photo: Protests held at Liverpool port
After a ferry company’s ship was docked in Northern Ireland, it was taken to the demonstrations.
According to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency the European Causeway ship was held in Larne Northern Ireland, last week, ‘based upon concerns about its safety’ and ‘to prevent them going to Sea’.
The discussions are also likely to involve the long-term impact of minimum wage for employees amid concerns P&O’s Dubai owners could fold the business after claiming it needs to cut staff costs.
P&O Ferries conducted a study last year into options to sustain the company which calculated it would cost £309 million to keep the business going while consulting with staff over job losses.
Months of consultations would have undermined the business, caused disruption which would have led to customers leaving to competitors, dealing a ‘fatal blow’ to P&O, a source said.
However, it believes the firm has protected the company’s future and that of the 2,200 employed.
A P&O spokesperson said: ‘Over 90% of seafarers affected are in discussions to progress with the severance offers.
“We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused to those affected, and their loved ones. We understand that they are angry and shocked at the loss of their jobs.
To make this business sustainable, we needed to implement fundamental changes. We had to make this difficult decision, but we finally decided it was necessary to save our business.
‘All other routes led to the loss of 3,000 jobs and the closure of P&O Ferries.
‘In making this hard choice we have guaranteed the future viability of P&O Ferries and secured Britain’s trading capacity.
“We will continue to support all former employees and current workers who are affected by this tragedy.”