The toughest new policy will create powers to block ferries with crews less than the minimum wage from British ports. The Ports Act of 1965 will be revised through primary legislation. until then, port operators should be denied access to non-compliant ships. “Well, this reform will close a gap in the minimum wage – or rather a door that the government deliberately left open for ferry companies when it changed the rules that covered other sailors in 2020,” Tim Tyndall told the Guardian this week. Keystone Law employment partner. . But P&O Ferries will probably consider the change entirely acceptable from its point of view. The company, it seems, can not be forced to reimburse anyone with the old interest rates – those operating at 36 36,000 on average under a Jersey-based contract, according to CEO Peter Hebblethwaite. Meanwhile, P&O Ferries’s inferior competitors, for whom it complained, will have to comply with the minimum wage. Thus, P&O Ferries will not be able to pay the irregular crew of its agency’s staff 50 5.50 per hour on average, which was its plan A, but it can obtain the “level playing field” it said it was looking for. DP World, meanwhile, the parent company that has blessed the breach of the law and is the force behind the ferries, probably now has less reason to fear being rejected by the UK’s freeport program, where its vast assets are ports on the Thames and Solent. Shapps said the Dubai-backed company was “very welcome to invest in this country”, but should understand that “we take employment law seriously” and that it had to “tackle this P&O situation”. . It was not clear what the “transaction” meant, but the DP could try to fire the arrogant Heblebwate, who, as seen from Dubai, has probably now served his purpose as a lightning rod for public outrage. It seems consumable, even before the Insolvency Service had the opportunity to consider his suitability to serve as a company manager. Shapps would have a scalp and DP would have hoped not to suffer collateral damage for her role in this infamous epic. However, former P&O Ferries employees would not get their jobs back.
Pearson is not a pushover
Educational publisher Pearson has disappointed its shareholders for about 20 years. Andy Bird, a digital tech boss in a (potentially) rich bonus deal, was about to change that, but the former Disney executive did not do much magic in the stock price during the 18 months he was in charge. of. A trading update in October led the stock to fall 12% per day. The pace of renaissance in the US has so far seemed slow, as it always has been. Well, you can guess that Pearson would be a sitting duck if a large private money hunter appeared in the US. But, no, the plot does not turn out that way. Prospective bidder Apollo pulled out on Wednesday after his third shot – 884 points per share, or ,2 7.2 billion χ including debt – was rejected by Pearson’s board as a “significant devaluation” of the company and its prospects. And, in fact, the devaluation line is fair. Expectations for takeover bids have risen. The Morrisons supermarket chain (where Apollo went out of business early) was cut by 60% from its pre-action share price last year, to 40% for Pearson, a company with more recovery potential. it was obviously not imperative. I also felt too early to abandon Bird’s plan to bring Pearson into the air. A three-year crack at work just seems fair: there may be more operational progress than is seen from the outside. The other conclusion, probably, is that the takeover game in the UK has become slightly less loaded in favor of private equity raiders. Borrowing costs have risen over the past year, making it more difficult to extend lending ratios. Apollo, having bought and sold Pearson’s rival McGraw Hill a few years ago, reached the U.S. textbook market with know-how, but ultimately could not, or did not want to, reach high enough to force Pearson’s board to start negotiations. The picture could change again in the next big takeover adventure, but the lack of drama in this case is welcome. The FTSE 100 companies, even those with Pearson’s irresistible record, should not be aggressive.
