LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – It has been revealed that P&O Ferries will not be prosecuted for mass-firing over 800 employees earlier this year, which prompted calls for a revision in the law.
When the corporation fired hundreds of employees without cause in March, it incited public outrage and forced the company to appear before MPs to answer questions.
The Insolvency Service was tasked with looking into any criminal or civil offences by the business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng.
However, the government body claimed in a statement that it had found “no realistic prospect of a conviction.”
They had concluded that they would not initiate criminal proceedings, a spokesperson said in reference to the circumstances that surrounded the workers who were laid off by P&O Ferries. There was an ongoing civil probe.
Huw Merriman, a Tory MP and chair of the Commons transport committee, advocated for laws to prevent organisations like P&O from repeating their actions.
The humiliation was on P&O, but if they didn’t repair it and stop it from happening again, the embarrassment would be on parliament, Merriman added.
The law wasn’t strong enough, and as MPs, they needed to pass legislation to ensure that it was, he said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The “discarded” employees would suffer as a result of the Insolvency Service’s decision, according to Nautilus International, a union that represents nautical professionals.
That was a terribly regrettable decision and would be met with anger and frustration by the 786 seafarers and their families who were discarded so cruelly by P&O Ferries, general secretary Mark Dickinson said.
Only one day after the parent company of P&O Ferries announced record earnings, casting doubt on the business’s claims of operational viability, they were once again let down by a system that didn’t crack down on what appeared to be illegal corporatism.
The message was clear: P&O Ferries needed to be held appropriately accountable for their despicable acts. The campaign would continue to guarantee that the CEO and his fellow directors were held accountable and that it can never happen again, he said.
The company acknowledged breaking the law that would have required them to give notice of the firings during the parliamentary sessions. Bosses said at the time that this was the case because no unions would have supported its new ideas.
The government was accused by Labour of abandoning its promise to hold P&O accountable and warned against repeating the mass firing.
Justin Madders, a shadow minister for labour rights, declared that despite all the hand-wringing of Tory ministers, they had broken the promises they made in response to P&O’s appalling behaviour and modified the legislation to allow others to behave similarly elsewhere.
This result demonstrated both the basic weakness of employment protections under the Conservative government and the state of the economy under their rule, he said.
According to a government spokesperson, P&O Ferries failed to keep the high standards they demand of British companies by firing 800 dedicated employees immediately.
It was incredibly disheartening that the firm won’t face criminal charges given their abhorrent behaviour, they said.
