P&O Ferries and employment rights

Motion Text

That this House condemns in the strongest possible terms the decision of P&O Ferries to fire 800 staff without notice or consultation with their trade unions, the RMT and Nautilus; demands the immediate reinstatement of the sacked workers; further condemns their replacement with agency workers earning as little as £1.80 per hour; condemns P&O’s use of hired private security guards to remove seafarers from their place of work; notes that DP World, the owner of P&O Ferries, received millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money during the coronavirus pandemic; calls on the Government to suspend the contracts and licences of DP World and remove them from the Government’s Transport Advisory Group; recognises the safety inspections carried out, but asks that the result of these inspections be published in full; and further calls on the Government to bring forward legislation to outlaw fire and rehire practices, strengthen workers’ rights, and ensure that operators using UK ports pay seafarers at least the national minimum wage.