In an upward response to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, the CEO of the ferry operator, Peter Hebblethwaite, said the claim was legally impossible and would close the company. He wrote to Shapps: “Fulfilling your request would deliberately cause the company to collapse, resulting in the irreparable loss of an additional 2,200 jobs. “I can not imagine that you would want to force an employer to bring about his downfall, affecting not hundreds but thousands of families.” Hebblethwaite said more than 765 of the 786 crew members briefly fired on March 17 “had taken steps to accept the settlement offer” and more than 500 had signed legally binding agreements. That included 67 officers who planned to continue working on P&O ships with the new agency’s crew. Shapps wrote to P&O Ferries on Monday offering “one last chance” to overturn the emergency and illegal dismissal of a UK-based crew working on contracts in Jersey, before bringing in a planned package of legal action to force the hand of. The Minister for Transport is expected to unveil an eight-point plan in parliament on Wednesday that will include stricter employment laws for ship operators in UK waters and tackling the minimum wage. Hebblethwaite wrote that the company welcomed the proposals to increase the minimum wage for all seafarers in UK waters, adding: “From the beginning, P&O Ferries has demanded a level playing field for wages on British ships.” What unions called a “downhill race” between pilots accelerated last year after the government refused to intervene when Irish Ferries began operating the Dover-Calais crossing in the summer of 2021, using a similar model of low-paid staff. The unions’ calls for intervention were followed by an immediate personal warning to Shapps in November last year by Dubai-based P&O Ferries owner DP World CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem that its low-cost crew model Irish Ferries “posed challenges” to its operations. Hebblethwaite told Shapps that regardless of the minimum wage, P&O Ferries should adopt a different crew model and not pay staff for rest periods as agreed with the unions. The chief executive, who shocked lawmakers at a House hearing last week by admitting that his company had deliberately violated the law by firing workers without consultation, said: “I tried to present the facts in this letter and to the select committees. with absolute sincerity and transparency. “ Subscribe to the Business Email daily email or follow the Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk He added: “We made this difficult decision knowing that it would be extremely unpopular and, for some, difficult to reconcile. I am fully aware of the cost of reputation for the P&O Ferries brand and myself.” Routes on passenger routes are suspended. On Monday night, a second P&O ship, the Pride of Kent, was arrested by the Shipping and Coast Guard after failing a security check. Another ferry, the European Causeway, was arrested in Larne, near Belfast, last Friday after failing an inspection due to problems such as crew familiarization and training.
