SIPTU says its members will demonstrate their support for the 786 P&O Ferries workers sacked without notice last week with a protest outside the P&O’s offices in Dublin Port.
The demonstration is planned for 12 noon on Saturday, March 26. Union organiser Jim McVeigh said the mass sacking is “completely unacceptable”.
“This company must be made realise it cannot treat workers as disposable items rather than as human beings,” he added. “Another shocking aspect to this situation is that these staff have been sacked in order to be replaced by workers who are, according to reports, being paid less than £2 an hour.
“We are calling on other trade unionists and the public to join the protest, which is solidarity with similar rallies in Ireland and across the UK which are being organised by the RMT trade union.”
Britain’s transport secretary Grant Shapps vowed to force the ferry operator to reverse the illegal firing of the 800 workers, branding the company’s decision as “brazen and breathtaking”.
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The minister said he would introduce a package of legislation next week that would force companies like P&O Ferries to pay the U.K. minimum wage at sea, as well as on land.
P&O fired the seafarers last week and replaced them with crews supplied by a third party in an effort to exploit legal loopholes and slash staff costs.
The legislation “will both close every possible loophole that exists and force them to U-turn on this,” Shapps told Sky News. “We are not having people working from British ports, plying regular routes between here and France, or here and Holland, or anywhere else and failing to pay the minimum wage. It’s simply unacceptable.”
Shapps' comments came a day after P&O chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite told a parliamentary committee that the company had knowingly violated the law and its employment contracts by failing to consult with workers about the firings.
He said P&O knew unions would never accept the company’s plans so it decided to avoid a “sham” consultation process and compensate workers for the lack of advance warning.
Unions representing the fired crew members say they have been replaced by workers earning as little as £1.81, The U.K. minimum wage is £8.91 an hour.
The company, a subsidiary of Dubai government-owned DP World, says the changes were needed to save the business and protect 2,200 other jobs after hundreds of millions of pounds in losses over the past two years.
Earlier this week, P&O told UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng that it had not violated British laws requiring advance notice to the government because the fired crews worked on ships registered in the Bahamas, Bermuda and Cyprus.
They were employed by three P&O units incorporated in Jersey, a self-governing crown dependency that isn’t part of the U.K. The company said authorities in the appropriate jurisdictions were notified in advance.
Shapps also called for Hebblethwaite to step down.
“I thought what the boss of P&O said yesterday about knowingly breaking the law was brazen and breathtaking and showed incredible arrogance, and I cannot believe that he can stay in that role,” Shapps said.
+ Additional reporting: AP
