P&O Ferries goes under (or not)

[Zigenare]

Do explain how it has anything to do with Brexit or are you making it up as usual?

Do you know how few ships are registered in the UK and how few actually have a predominantly British crew? This has been standard for decades. Sack the crew and hire from low cost countries is standard.

We can partly blame John Prescott for the death of the British Merchant Fleet.

[SueEllen]

F Me.

Iain Dale and John McDonnell both agreeing saying that the Dubai wealth fund should be offered £1 and we should nationalise P&O.

Oh and if you need to take a ferry in the next few months avoid P&O. The ships don't come with handbooks so the new crews don't know what they are doing. They are also working 2 weekly rotas which research has already proved are unsafe.

[GJABS]

F Me.

Iain Dale and John McDonnell both agreeing saying that the Dubai wealth fund should be offered £1 and we should nationalise P&O.

£1 is probably what it's worth, to be fair. As while I can't say specifically for P&O, in general old legacy companies like this are inefficiently run. So in some ways it would be better for them to go back on the redundancies, let the company go bust, the workers all lose their jobs, and a new company comes along, buys the assets and routes, and hires the most appropriate staff for the job, whether they be local or foreign.

[vetran]

Seems P&O have been planning this for a while, according to GBnews their staff were on Jersey based contracts so they don't get the same level of redundancy.

[mattster]

Seems P&O have been planning this for a while, according to GBnews their staff were on Jersey based contracts so they don't get the same level of redundancy.

Maritime has weird employment laws with respect to nationality etc. I don't know much about it but is it based on the flag of the ship, or can they just hire anyone from anywhere? I'm assuming the new lot don't have (or need) UK work visas, and may not have any sort of UK visas at all - they'll simply never leave the ship when it is docked in the UK. Does anyone know where they are from? EU or further afield?

[WTFH]

Maritime has weird employment laws with respect to nationality etc. I don't know much about it but is it based on the flag of the ship, or can they just hire anyone from anywhere? I'm assuming the new lot don't have (or need) UK work visas, and may not have any sort of UK visas at all - they'll simply never leave the ship when it is docked in the UK. Does anyone know where they are from? EU or further afield?

It appears some are from Lithuania.

[WTFH]

Seems P&O have been planning this for a while,...

Yes, see the article I posted from 3 years ago, and the reasons the company gave for it back then.

[vetran]

My understanding is that the country of registration controls most of the legal side, which is why so many ships are registered abroad as they have different laws on tax, employment and safety. There was probably a reason why employing the staff via Jersey was done, its hardly a cheap or conventional way to employ a predominantly British staff.

[vetran]

Yes, see the article I posted from 3 years ago, and the reasons the company gave for it back then.

yep never underestimate the deviousness of some employers.

[vetran]

hmm

https://www.thelocal.fr/20220318/why...rench-workers/

The company says that in total it employed 3,000 people – including the 800 UK staff who lost their jobs.

The remaining staff are made up of office-based UK roles (the redundancies only affect seafaring staff) and staff in France, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The company said in a statement: “In making this tough decision [to axe the 800 UK jobs] we are securing the future viability of our business which employs an additional 2,200 people and supports billions in trade in and out of the UK. And we are ensuring that we can continue serving our customers in a way that they have demanded from us for many years.”

However, French workers enjoy greater protection than the British colleagues thanks to the Code du Travail (labour code).

The Code du Travail is an enormous doorstep of a document that covers everything from eating lunch at your desk to having sex with a stranger on a business trip – and how bosses can get rid of their workers.

French redundancy

Concerning redundancies, the Code first sets requirements that businesses must fulfil in order to make employees redundant.

If the redundancies are for economic reasons, the company must be able to demonstrate a drop in orders or turnover for a minimum period – for businesses with more than 300 employees, the loss must be over four consecutive quarters.