The millionaire boss of P&O Ferries squirmed in his seat during a session with MPs today as he refused to say if he could live on just £5.50 an hour – the sub-minimum wage rate that he is paying the cheap agency foreign crew which have replaced the 800 staff dramatically sacked last week.
Peter Hebblethwaite opened his Commons evidence session by publicly apologizing to hundreds of employees and families who were left in pain after disgraced Zoom operator failed to notify them of their redundancy.
The £325,000 chief executive, who lives in a plush Cotswold farmhouse worth more than £1.5million, then admitted that the average hourly pay of the new crew is just £5.50 per hour. The minimum wage in the UK for people aged 23 and above is £8.91 per hour. By comparison, the sacked crew earned an average of £36,000 per year.
Business committee member Andy McDonald asked Mr Hebblethwaite: ‘That’s below the national minimum wage of this country. How do you reconcile that?’.
Mr Hebblethwaite replied: ‘Where we are governed by national minimum wage, we will absolutely pay national minimum wage. This is an international seafaring model that is consistent with models throughout the globe and our competitors.’
The ferry company boss offered no answer when Mr McDonald asked ‘could you sustain your lifestyle?’, if he was paid the same as the new workers.
The Labour MP added: ‘How do you expect them to be able to feed their families and pay their bills?’.
Earlier, Nautilus International shared a photo of what it claimed were ‘binned items’ belonging to staff who had worked in the Pride of Kent, and thundered in a tweet that it was ‘yet another example of the utter contempt P&O Ferries holds for its crew’.
Marine Tracker also today shows Pride of Hull sailing its normal route, from Hull to Rotterdam last evening. It is currently moored at a berth.
Katy Ware (Director of UK Maritime Services), testified today that the ship had been cleared to sail to Holland without any passengers and cargo yesterday. She added that the Pride of Hull will undergo inspections by Dutch authorities today, and that P&O aims to have passengers and cargo on board for its return journey to East Yorkshire.
Nautilus International claimed that P&O Ferries is training the new recruits without any passengers, and that the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has not given the ferry permission to return to normal operations. P&O Ferries declined to comment.
Addressing the joint evidence session, union bosses also accused P&O Ferries of a ‘flagrant breach of law’ and of ‘blackmailing’ former workers.
Peter Hebblethwaite, Chief Executive, P&O Ferries, answering questions in front of the Transport Committee and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee in the House of Commons
The row over P&O Ferries’ treatment of its workers sunk to a new low today after Nautilus International posted a photo of what they claimed showed the binned personal belongings of the hundreds of staff sacked last week
Marine Tracker also shows the Pride of Hull sailing its usual route from Hull to Rotterdam – without any passengers. It has been claimed that P&O Ferries is training the new recruits
Prime Minister Boris Johnson may have ‘overstepped the mark’ when he claimed that P&O Ferries broke UK labour laws. Right, P&O’s millionaire boss Peter Hebblethwaite
People take part in a demonstration against the dismissal of P&O workers organised by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at the P&O ferry terminal in Cairnryan, Dumfries and Galloway, March 23, 2022
People take part in a demonstration against the dismissal of P&O workers organised by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at the P&O ferry terminal in Cairnryan, Dumfries and Galloway, March 23, 2022
Revealed: Chris Grayling ‘cleared the way for P&O Ferries to sack 800 staff without needing to tell the Transport Secretary’
Former Tory minister Chris Grayling cleared the way for P&O Ferries to sack 800 staff last week without needing to tell the Transport Secretary, according to a leading maritime lawyer
Former Tory minister Chris Grayling cleared the way for P&O Ferries to sack 800 staff last week without needing to tell the Transport Secretary, according to a leading maritime lawyer.
Kevin Barnett, head of employment at marine law specialists Lester Aldridge LLP, has claimed that laws to protect employees in Britain were amended by Mr Grayling in 2018 so that the Secretary of State does not have to be notified of mass redundancies on ships registered overseas.
It comes after P&O’s millionaire boss Peter Hebblethwaite wrote to the Government yesterday, insisting that the operator had not broken UK labour laws because the ships were registered outside of Britain – in this case, Cyprus and the Bahamas.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng had threatened P&O Ferries with unlimited fines, warning Mr Hebblethwaite that ‘clear rules’ include ‘notifying in advance… the Secretary of State’.
But Mr Barnett says that Mr Kwarteng is ‘incorrect’ on this point, telling Sky News: ‘The amendment states the notification must be made to the competent authority of the state where the ship is registered, instead of the Secretary of State.’
In February 2018, a statutory instrument amended the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
The change signed off by Mr Grayling states: ‘[If] the employees concerned are members of the crew of a seagoing vessel which is registered at a port outside Great Britain… the employer shall give the notification required… to the competent authority of the state where the vessel is registered (instead of to the Secretary of State).’
The Department for Transport (DfT) said in an explanatory note that the amendment was supposed to improve seafarers’ employment rights.
The department claimed the amendment had been supported by the unions who have led protests against P&O’s actions. No other information was included. Formal consultations were held before any change, but no impact assessment was done.
A memo leaked to the Sunday Times suggested that officials at DfT had been notified of P&O Ferries’ intent to sack hundreds of its staff without notice.
It also allegedly shows that the Department for Transport did nothing to oppose or question the company’s decision, even though it may have been against the law, according to the Sunday Times.
The DfT told the Sunday Times: ‘This was an internal government memo which, as standard practice, outlined what officials had been told by P&O Ferries shortly before their announcement was made.
‘This was sent before ministers were advised of the full details and as soon as they were informed, they made clear their outrage at the way in which P&O staff had been dismissed.
‘It is clear from the memo that our immediate priority was to work with unions to ensure workers’ rights continue to be protected and the Transport Secretary has urged the company to sit down with workers and reconsider this action.’
Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), said: ‘They’ve done it deliberately and they’ve factored in what they’re going to have to pay for it, and they’re threatening and blackmailing our people, saying “if you do not sign this document by next Thursday, you will be out of work and you’ll potentially get no award whatsoever, and you have to give up all of your legal rights to take this company to task”. This is absolutely outrageous.’
He added: ‘The whole thing is a setup and the law in this country is a shambles.’
Boris Johnson has threatened the disgraced operator with criminal prosecution and potentially unlimited fines ‘running into millions of pounds’ for allegedly breaking UK labour laws. However, moments after the Prime Minister made the dramatic remarks in the Commons yesterday, Government sources indicated that he may have ‘overstepped the mark’.
Legal experts have said that changes to EU law adopted by former Tory minister Chris Grayling in 2018 mean that the Secretary of State does not have to be notified of mass redundancies on ships registered overseas – but instead, officials in the locations where ships are flagged.
Giving evidence today, Mr Hebblethwaite said: ‘Can I start these with an apology? Apologies to all seafarers who were hurt on Thursday last week. An apology to their families. And an apology for the 2200 employees that have been subject to very challenging questions in the past week.
‘You may see this as a late apology and I just want to reassure you the reason that you’re hearing this for the first time today is because I’ve spent the last week in the business, talking to our people one to one.’
Hebblethwaite, writing to Tory ministers said that mass sacking was needed in order to save the company.
Asked how much money P&O Ferries will now save by employing cheaper agency workers, the company’s chief executive told MPs today: ‘This entirely different model is about half the price of the previous model.’
Questioned on what the lowest hourly rate would be in the new model, Mr Hebblethwaite said: ‘About £5.15. The average rate is from about £5.50 to about £6, depending on exchange rate.’
Commenting on whether he believed that was a fair wage or whether he saw it as ‘modern day slavery’, Mr Hebblethwaite said: ‘The rates we are paying are in line or above ITF minimum standards and it is the operating model that the vast majority of operators across the globe work to. So this is the competitive standard.’
Questioned on whether he believes his actions have done more to end the business rather than save it, Mr Hebblethwaite told MPs: ‘I think we’ve got a tough job to do now to rebuild the business.
‘But I think P&O with a future and P&O that is able to be competitive, pay its own bills, and offer the customer service that is required, has a much better chance.’
He also informed MPs that DP World had told the Transport Secretary that they would be altering their business model. This was on November 22, last year.
Millionaire boss insists that company didn’t break UK labor laws as the vessels are not registered in the UK.
Writing to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, he said that the ’very clear statutory obligation in the particular circumstances that applied was for each company to notify the competent authority of the state where the vessel is registered’.
But Kevin Barnett, head of employment at marine law specialists Lester Aldridge LLP, said that the minister was ‘incorrect’ on this point, telling Sky News: ‘The amendment states the notification must be made to the competent authority of the state where the ship is registered, instead of the Secretary of State.’
In February 2018, a statutory instrument amended the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992.
The change signed off by Mr Grayling states: ‘[If] the employees concerned are members of the crew of a seagoing vessel which is registered at a port outside Great Britain… the employer shall give the notification required… to the competent authority of the state where the vessel is registered (instead of to the Secretary of State).’
The Department for Transport (DfT) said in an explanatory note that the amendment was supposed to improve seafarers’ employment rights.
The department claimed the amendment had been supported by the unions who have led protests against P&O’s actions. According to the department, no consultations were held before the amendment was implemented and there was no impact assessment.
It comes after a memo leaked to the Sunday Times suggested that officials at DfT had been notified of P&O Ferries’ intent to sack hundreds of its staff without notice.
At a joint hearing of the Transport Select committee and the Business, Energy and Industrial Select Committee today, Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), told MPs that P&O Ferries has ‘made flagrant breaches of the law’.
He said: ‘They’ve done it deliberately and they’ve factored in what they’re going to have to pay for it, and they’re threatening and blackmailing our people, saying “if you do not sign this document by next Thursday, you will be out of work and you’ll potentially get no award whatsoever, and you have to give up all of your legal rights to take this company to task”. This is absolutely outrageous.’
He added: ‘The whole thing is a setup and the law in this country is a shambles.
‘The politicians and the lawyers in this country have watched over the last 30 years, while not only workers have been made vulnerable, but our merchant marine has been decimated and destroyed.
‘If this goes the way it’s likely to go from what I’ve seen, we won’t have a merchant navy in this country.
‘They’re trying to kill off British employment law!’: Unions rail at P&O Ferries in evidence session with MPs as top QC suggests operator MAY have breached UK labour laws
Mick Lynch, General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, answers questions before the Transport Committee and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee of the House of Commons
At a joint hearing of the Transport Select Committee and the Business, Energy and Industrial Select Committee today, Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), told MPs that P&O Ferries has ‘made flagrant breaches of the law’.
He said: ‘They’ve done it deliberately and they’ve factored in what they’re going to have to pay for it, and they’re threatening and blackmailing our people, saying “if you do not sign this document by next Thursday, you will be out of work and you’ll potentially get no award whatsoever, and you have to give up all of your legal rights to take this company to task”. This is absolutely outrageous.’
He added: ‘The whole thing is a setup and the law in this country is a shambles.
‘The politicians and the lawyers in this country have watched over the last 30 years, while not only workers have been made vulnerable, but our merchant marine has been decimated and destroyed.
‘If this goes the way it’s likely to go from what I’ve seen, we won’t have a merchant navy in this country.
‘There will be no ratings working in British ports. British ships and ratings will end their existence. That’s what P&O are aiming to achieve, to kill our merchant marine and to kill our employment laws, and something’s got to be done about it today.’
Also giving evidence to MPs, Andrew Burns QC, barrister at Devereaux Chambers, said: ‘In broad terms, all employers with ships must give a notice to the appropriate authority 45 days before dismissal.
‘My understanding from what I’ve been told this morning is that the notice was given to the appropriate authorities in the countries where the ships are flagged only on the day of the dismissals and not in advance.’
He said that ‘appears to be a breach’ of employment law, and ‘it may be that [P&O Ferries] are liable to a prosecution’.
‘There will be no ratings working in British ports. British ships and ratings will be extinct. That’s what P&O are aiming to achieve, to kill our merchant marine and to kill our employment laws, and something’s got to be done about it today.’
Also giving evidence to MPs, Andrew Burns QC, barrister at Devereaux Chambers, said: ‘In broad terms, all employers with ships must give a notice to the appropriate authority 45 days before dismissal.
‘My understanding from what I’ve been told this morning is that the notice was given to the appropriate authorities in the countries where the ships are flagged only on the day of the dismissals and not in advance.’
He said that ‘appears to be a breach’ of employment law, and ‘it may be that [P&O Ferries] are liable to a prosecution’.
Mr Hebblethwaite yesterday publicly apologised for the impact of the mass layoff, but insisted that it was ‘the only way to save the business’.
P&O Ferries also announced that it would pay more than £36million in compensation to sacked staff, with 40 employees in line for payments of more than £100,000. It said payouts would be linked to the period of service, and in some cases exceed £170,000.
The total value of the settlement is £36,541,648, with no worker set to receive less than £15,000, the company added.
But the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has said that P&O’s claims that it had not broken any laws do not mean that the ferry firm will not face legal action.
Its general secretary Frances O’Grady told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We don’t believe their legal advice is right and in the past, in fact, P&O has followed consultation rules, so either their very expensive legal advice has changed or their morals have just fallen through the floor.’
In a statement, Mr Hebblethwaite said: ‘I want to say sorry to the people affected and their families for the impact it’s had on them, and also to the 2,200 people who still work for P&O and will have been asked a lot of difficult questions about this.
‘Over the last week, I’ve been speaking face-to-face to seafarers and their partners. They’ve lost their jobs and there is anger and shock, and I completely understand.
‘We needed fundamental change to make us viable. It was a difficult decision to make, but it became clear that this was the best way to save the company.
‘All other routes led to the closure of P&O Ferries. I wish there was another way and I’m sorry.’
Former workers have reacted with fury to the announcement, with one telling The Times newspaper: ‘This is a total betrayal. As they had to reply to the Government it is obvious that the government wants everyone to believe they did the right thing. I don’t want a payoff, I want the job I loved and gave me a life’.
The Nautilus union said P&O Ferries’ ‘shameless actions now extend to trying to buy its way out of a legal predicament exposed by the unions, obligation to report to the secretary of state and to consult with the recognised trades unions’.
They added: ‘P&O Ferries are claiming to be offering the “largest compensation package in the British marine sector” – a company in such desperate financial circumstances that it is prepared to spend £36.6million on a fake redundancy.
‘Let’s be clear, this statement is confirmation that P&O Ferries believes that with enough money it has no need to follow the laws of this country or be hindered by ethical business standards despite the glitzy commitments of its parent company in Dubai.
‘Instead, it intends to bully our maritime professionals into signing settlement agreements to buy their silence.’
Miss O’Grady said it was the case that one of their ferries was registered in Cyprus and another in the Bahamas, adding: ‘These are all about tax arrangements, but it’s the workers’ contracts that we’re looking closely at’.
She told the Today programme yesterday: ‘We believe that P&O has acted unlawfully. It’s now clear that they deliberately flouted UK law in failing to consult with workers and their unions and sacking those 800 loyal and skilled seafarers.
‘We also now know, of course, that ministers knew that the sackings were imminent, and they knew before the workers knew, and they failed to inform unions too, so now the ball is in the Government’s court to make sure that P&O either reinstates those workers or they pay a very high price.’
She also insisted ministers ‘must come down on P&O like a ton of bricks’, adding: ‘If P&O is allowed to get away with a slap on the wrist, it will be a green light for employers up and down the land to treat staff like disposable labour.’
A spokesman for P&O Ferries said: ‘This has been an incredibly tough decision for the business: to make this choice or face taking the company into administration. This would have meant the loss of 3,000 jobs and the end of P&O Ferries.
New P&O staff members during safety training at the Port of Dover in Kent after the ferry giant handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices last week and services remain suspended, March 21, 2022
A P&O ferry remains moored at the Port of Dover in Kent after the ferry giant handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices last week and services remain suspended, March 22, 2022
A P&O ferry called Pride of Canterbury at the port in Dover, Britain, March 18, 2022
‘In making this hard choice, we have guaranteed the future viability of P&O Ferries, avoided large-scale and lengthy disruption, and secured Britain’s trading capacity.’
It stated that it would instead pay 1.5 to 2.5 weeks salary and the statutory minimum of 2.5 weeks for any year, provided the settlement agreement is in place. The company also offers 13 weeks salary as notice and 13 more weeks on top in the absence of consultation.
But Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), said that ‘the pay in lieu of notice is not compensation’.
‘It is just a payment staff are contractually entitled to as there was no notice given,’ he said.
‘The way that the package has been structured is pure blackmail and threats – that if staff do not sign up and give away their jobs and their legal right to take the company to an employment tribunal, they will receive a fraction of the amount put to them.
‘The actions of P&O demonstrate the weakness of employment law and protections in the UK. P&O have flagrantly breached the law and abandoned any standards of workplace decency.
‘They have ripped away the jobs, careers and pensions of our members and thrown them on the dole with the threat that if they do not sign up and give away their rights they will lose many thousands of pounds in payments.’
Last week, Mr Kwarteng wrote to Mr Hebblethwaite to say P&O Ferries had ‘lost the trust of the public’ and ‘given business a bad name’.
A BEIS spokesman said on Tuesday: ‘We have received a response to the Business Secretary’s letter to P&O and are reviewing their explanations.
‘We will continue to work at speed with the Insolvency Service to consider if legal action is required and will provide an update as soon as possible.
‘Given recent reports of staff being paid below the national minimum wage, the Business Secretary has also asked the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate to investigate the terms of agency workers’ contracts.’
It has also emerged that Mr Hebblethwaite lives in a plush Cotswold farmhouse worth more than £1.5million. Land Registry records show he and his wife Honor, an interior designer, paid £1.575million for their farmhouse in 2019.
A sales brochure for the Victorian property describes it as ‘an imposing detached family house offering extensive accommodation, including a heated swimming pool and stables set in approximately six acres’.
The property, close to Cirencester, Gloucestershire, boasts five double bedrooms, a double-aspect study and mature gardens and grounds.
Mr Hebblethwaite’s salary is not known but it is believed to be six figures. He took over as chief executive on an interim basis last year.
It comes as the Government threatened to criminally prosecute and impose unlimited fines on P&O Ferries if the disgraced operator is found to have broken labour laws.
Business Minister Paul Scully told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: ‘If they have flouted the notification law where they are supposed to tell the Secretary of State when they are going to make more than a hundred people redundant, then there are criminal sanctions involved in that, including an unlimited fine.
‘We have reserved the right to approach the prosecuting authorities should that be the right thing to do.’
Mr Scully said Transport Secretary Grant Shapps was reviewing all Government contracts and dealings with the company and its owners, DP World, adding: ‘They need to realise that the relationship between the companies and the Government has changed as a result of their absolutely callous [conduct]’.
Asked if that could include a £25million subsidy to DP World to help develop London Gateway as a freeport, he replied: ‘We will look into all of these things as part of this.’
Tory politicians are demanding that the Government consider scrapping its relationship with DP World, with Conservative peer Baroness Roz Altman telling the Today programme: ‘I think what P&O Ferries have done is absolutely disgraceful.
‘I feel so sorry for those 800 seamen who were loyal to P&O who were sacked by video, escorted of their ships, no warning, and I think that the Government should think very carefully about forcing the employer to behave better, and if that means that they have to impose any kind of sanctions or warnings to them, I think that would be entirely appropriate.’
P&O Ferries has replaced the 800 sacked staff with £1.82-an-hour foreign agency workers from India, the Phillipines and war-hit Ukraine.
Plush & Opulent: Boss of P&O Ferries who sacked 800 staff at once owns sprawling £1.5million farmhouse
The millionaire boss of P&O Ferries lives in a plush Cotswold farmhouse worth more than £1.5million, the Daily Mail can today reveal.
Peter Hebblethwaite, chief executive at the ferry company which on Thursday fired 800 crew on the spot to replace them with cheaper agency workers, defended an earlier round of sackings by declaring ‘only the fittest survive’.
Land Registry records show Mr Hebblethwaite, 51, and his wife Honor, an interior designer, paid £1.575million for their farmhouse in 2019.
P&O CEO Peter Hebblethwaite, who sacked 800 workers in one go, is the owner of a large farmhouse worth £1.5million
Mr Hebblewaite lives in the expensive mansion in Gloucestershire with his interior designer wife Honor
People have held protests outside the P&O offices (pictured),after hundreds of people were let go from their jobs with immediate effect
This Victorian property’s sales brochure describes it as “an imposant detached family home offering ample accommodation including a heated swimmingpool and stables, set on approximately six acres.”
This property is located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire and features five double bedrooms and a double-aspect study. There are also mature gardens and grounds.
Although Mr Hebblethwaite isn’t known his salary, it is thought to be in the six-figures. Last year, he was appointed interim chief executive.