[UK] Transport Secretary will ban P&O UK routes unless workers get minimum wage

Grant Shapps - the UK Transport Secretary - is preparing to prevent P&O Ferries from operating on UK routes unless replacement workers are paid the national minimum wage, Mirror reports.

Mr Shapps has written to the P&O Ferries boss Peter Hebblethwaite to urge the reversal of pay cuts and ask that staff are paid at the national minimum wage of £9.50 an hour.

This week the Transport Secretary will reportedly table measures to stop companies from being able to employ fire and rehire tactics.

The move follows reports that Government officials knew about P&O Ferries’ plans to sack 800 crew via a recorded Zoom call yet failed to challenge them.

Mr Shapps is expected to hold talks with rival ferry operators of P&O Ferries in an attempt to avoid chaos at UK ports during the Easter holidays.

On March 27 the Transport Secretary met with DFDS and Stena Line to determine whether they will be able to fill the gap left by P&O.

Boris Johnson and Mr Shapps have called on Mr Hebblethwaite to resign following his acknowledgement that the company had deliberately broken the law and he would do it again.

He reportedly told MPs he “would do it again” and refused to say if he himself could manage to live on the new workers’ £5.50 hourly wage.

Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said, “P&O has produced a blueprint for rogue employers to slash wages and the Tories have done nothing to stop them.”

At the weekend, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) tweeted a video showing P&O dockers in Rotterdam refusing to load freight onto a ferry set for Hull “in solidarity with the 800 seafarers illegally sacked by P&O”.

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.

Source: Mirror

(Quotes via original reporting)

Grant Shapps - the UK Transport Secretary - is preparing to prevent P&O Ferries from operating on UK routes unless replacement workers are paid the national minimum wage, Mirror reports.

Mr Shapps has written to the P&O Ferries boss Peter Hebblethwaite to urge the reversal of pay cuts and ask that staff are paid at the national minimum wage of £9.50 an hour.

This week the Transport Secretary will reportedly table measures to stop companies from being able to employ fire and rehire tactics.

The move follows reports that Government officials knew about P&O Ferries’ plans to sack 800 crew via a recorded Zoom call yet failed to challenge them.

Mr Shapps is expected to hold talks with rival ferry operators of P&O Ferries in an attempt to avoid chaos at UK ports during the Easter holidays.

On March 27 the Transport Secretary met with DFDS and Stena Line to determine whether they will be able to fill the gap left by P&O.

Boris Johnson and Mr Shapps have called on Mr Hebblethwaite to resign following his acknowledgement that the company had deliberately broken the law and he would do it again.

He reportedly told MPs he “would do it again” and refused to say if he himself could manage to live on the new workers’ £5.50 hourly wage.

Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said, “P&O has produced a blueprint for rogue employers to slash wages and the Tories have done nothing to stop them.”

At the weekend, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) tweeted a video showing P&O dockers in Rotterdam refusing to load freight onto a ferry set for Hull “in solidarity with the 800 seafarers illegally sacked by P&O”.

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.

Source: Mirror

(Quotes via original reporting)