London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

P&O Ferries could face prosecution over sackings, minister says

P&O Ferries could face prosecution over sackings, minister says

Business minister Paul Scully says firm could face ‘unlimited fine’ if it has flouted laws
P&O Ferries could face prosecution over the sacking of 800 workers, the business minister, Paul Scully, warned before a government ultimatum to the company.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has said he will review all government contracts and dealings with the company and its owners, DP World.

On Tuesday, the RMT union said seafarers from abroad had been brought in to replace the 800 sacked British crew and were being paid as little as £1.80 an hour.

P&O Ferries disputes the figures but it declined to discuss the rates or give alternative rates and would not confirm whether it paid the minimum wage.

Scully said the government was examining whether the company had followed the proper procedure before mass redundancies. Shapps has given the company a deadline of Tuesday night to explain how the procedures were followed.

“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,” he said.

“We have reserved the right to approach the prosecuting authorities should that be the right thing to do.”

Scully said the company should be on notice that it had fundamentally changed the relationship with the government, including a £25m subsidy the company had received to help develop London Gateway as a freeport.

“They need to realise that the relationship between the companies and the government has changed as a result of their absolutely callous [conduct],” he said.

Shapps admitted last week that he was made aware of planned redundancies at 8.30pm on Wednesday but assumed they would be conducted in the same way as the 1,100 layoffs in 2020, through consultation rather than “the cynical approach” used.

The shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said the government “should have moved” faster after it was notified, telling BBC Breakfast: “I want to know what sort of questions was the government asking?

“It was clear when that memo was sent to the government this was something out of the ordinary … to be told yesterday that they did know in advance what was going on, first of all, they should have moved to stop that and they can still move to stop that. It’s no good saying it will help people get jobs who’ve been sacked in this way.

“We cannot allow this to stand because this becomes the template for how these things are done in the UK from now on.”

The former pensions minister Ros Altmann said the company’s behaviour was “absolutely disgraceful”, and added “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.”

Lady Altmann told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there could be “further concerns” about the company’s multi-employer pension fund with about 100 companies linked to it.

“There’s clearly a bigger risk now, in some ways that the company won’t necessarily survive,” she said.

“It has a very wealthy parent who normally one might be looking to to fix this deficit, even if the business itself isn’t going so well for the subsidiary, the parent company is doing extremely well. If we don’t try to ensure that money is paid in now, then the bill for other companies, competitors of P&O may be even greater.

“If that business moves forward, then it will be having some unfair advantages over its competition if they are paying proper minimum wage and abiding by the types of laws that British companies need to abide by – but also there might be extra costs for their pension.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
×