As a result of P&O’s disastrous handling of the firing of over 800 staff without notice, the controversial Chief Executive Peter Hebblethwaite who was responsible for this saga recently appeared before a joint hearing of the Transport Select Committee and the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee at Westminster, where he told MPs he would make the same decision again, if he needed to and refused to make a u-turn on his decision. The company’s conduct has caused widespread outrage.
Darren Jones, Chair of the business committee, asked Peter Hebblethwaite: “Are you in this mess because you don’t know what you’re doing, or are you just a shameless criminal?” The P&O Ferries boss confessed that they broke the law by sacking 800 of their workers without consulting the unions.
“It was our assessment that the change was of such a magnitude that no union could possibly accept our proposal”, Hebblethwaite argued. The former Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Andy McDonald, said he’d “never heard such farcical answers to a series of questions. The decision caused widespread condemnation, with the Solicitor-General saying that the company could face legal action.
Peter Hebblethwaite also later appeared before the Scottish Parliament at the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee at Holyrood for further questioning. Mr Hebblethwaite came under fire whilst appearing at the Committee and reiterated that the firm would have folded had the 800 sackings not been made earlier this month. The SNP’s Fiona Hyslop, deputy convener of the committee, asked if he felt any “remorse” over the mass firings. He responded: “I on many occasions have reiterated how sorry I am for the impact that this has had on 800 seafarers, 39 who live in Scotland, their families, the 2200 people who remain in the organisation that have had to answer a number of difficult questions. I am very, very personally and personally deeply sorry for that. I do however believe categorically that we would be talking about the irrecoverable loss of thousands of jobs had we not taken the very difficult decision that we took.”
Further to this, “The First Minister has said that staff had been treated appallingly.”
Peter Hebblethwaite also admitted the new foreign agency workers will be paid just £5.50 per hour, significantly below the national living wage in the UK, which increased earlier this month to £9.50 per hour.
There are serious questions being raised about the hiring of cheaper agency staff to replace the existing staff and the company’s conduct as a result. The existing staff and trade unions should have been consulted prior to the firing of over 800 staff as discussed in our last article. P&O have since admitted to wilfully breaking the law.
P&O advise that the average crew member was making £36,000 and will receive on average £46,500 in compensation. P&O are paying new agency staff an average of £5.15 an hour, less than minimum wage so, if working full time, agency staff would be earning less than £11,000 a year, which has caused anger and disbelief.
P&O ships were being held as they must pass safety inspections prior to sailing. Seven ships at one point were reportedly held and could not sail as agency staff needed to undertake the appropriate training, another issue which P&O have to tackle. The other issue seems to be where the ships are registered, the Spirit of Britain for example is registered in Limassol (Cyprus), a reminder that P&O trades on international waters away from the jurisdiction of the UK.
The numerous issues involved here are complex and the Government is reported to be taking legal action against P&O however it is uncertain as to the extent that the UK law applies here. P&O’s crews are reported to be employed by companies based in Jersey to work on vessels registered in the Bahamas, Bermuda and Cyprus. It is unknown to what degree the company is bound by those UK laws to which it has admitted to breaking.
What is known at this stage is that the Insolvency Service has “initiated both formal criminal and civil investigations” into the circumstances of the redundancies, after making inquiries at the request of the Government. This is going to be welcomed by all parties involved who had pleaded that the Government not let P&O get away without sanction for choosing to break the law.
We do not know the specific details relating to P&O however on the point of redundancies generally speaking, it is an offence under s194 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA 1992) for failure to notify the Secretary of State of 20 or more planned redundancies at one institution within a particular time period.
A prosecution for this offence can only be started by or with the consent of the Secretary of State, or by an officer authorised for that purpose by special or general directions of the Secretary of State (s194(2), TULRCA). Essentially the prosecuting authority will be the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The fact that investigations are underway are an indication that prosecutions are being considered.
A company can be charged with this offence. Yet, where an offence by a company is proved to have been committed with the consent or collusion of, or to be linked to neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person purporting to act in any such capacity, that individual as well as the company is guilty of the offence and liable to be prosecuted (s194(3), TULRCA).
We will continue to follow this matter closely to see how the investigation develops.
For more information or assistance please contact Noele McClelland in Thorntons specialist Employment Law team on 03330 430350.
