P&O Ferries Fires 800 Employees On The Spot In Pre-Recorded Video, Leaving Twitter Horrified

P&O Ferries fired 800 members of staff with immediate effect through a pre-recorded video which has now been leaked.

A 24-second clip of the recording was obtained by BBC South East on Thursday and shows how the company sacked hundreds of employees remotely.

The person in the footage, who has remained unnamed so far, tells the room: “The company has made the decision going forward that it will be primarily crewed by a third party crew provider.

“Therefore I am sorry to inform you that this means your employment is terminated with immediate effect on the grounds of redundancy.

“Your final day of employment is today.”

The surprising news followed a series of cancelled Dover crossings on Thursday morning, which was soon extended to cover all ferry crossings from P&O over the next few days.

The company has claimed it is not a viable business in its current state and that it had been a “tough” decision to fire so many employees, but it was necessary for its survival.

Before the pandemic, P&O was one of the UK’s leading ferry services, carrying more than 10 million passengers a year and approximately 15% of all freight cargo going in and leaving the UK.

RMT union member Gary Jackson told the BBC that he and his crew received the pre-recorded message at 11am but did not receive anything in writing from their former employers.

He said: “We’ve still not received any detail further on what they will offer. We can see from the shop two vans, one with agency staff and the other with what we believe are security staff to remove us…and that’s why the captain here lifted the gangway.”

Local MP Natalie Elphicke said the job losses – likely to occur mostly on the Dover to Calais route, although French staff are reportedly unaffected – goes against the promises P&O previously made to her.

The Conservative parliamentarian said: “It’s absolutely disgraceful the way the workers were told, without having a proper consultation or going through the usual processes.”

Judging from the Twitter reaction, she was not the only one who was outraged by the way P&O handled the situation:

Some crew reportedly refused to leave their ships in the immediate aftermath of their dismissal, and the RMT Union claimed that private security officers were sent in to remove workers from a ship at Larne Harbour in Northern Ireland.

The union also alleged that the crew members were being replaced by cheaper overseas alternatives.

P&O used to run 15 daily crossings to Calais during peak season, but the pandemic affect its business after making ”£100 million loss year on year”.

Back in May 2020, it made 614 staff redundant on both sides of the English Channel.

It also claimed close to £15 million in government grants in 2020 including furlough payment.

Another P&O employee, James Sloth, said the entire video message lasted only “three minutes” and it was a “complete surprise” considering people are starting to travel again for summer, celebrating the end of Covid restrictions.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said he was “concerned” about the developments and would be speaking to P&O.

The Scottish secretary Alister Jack confirmed that he had written to the company asking for “clarity” on what this meant for the service and jobs linked to P&O, while maritime minister Robert Courts said he was “extremely concerned and frankly angry” when he was in the Commons on Thursday.

Labour’s Lou Haigh, the shadow transport secretary, also told parliament that she believed it was a “national scandal” which is “beneath contempt”, dubbing the treatment of the employees “the act of thugs”.