Nautilus union slams P&O’s offered settlement
Payouts to staff fired without warning last week will total £36.5 million, P&O says – but Nautilus has called it an admission of guilt.
P&O Ferries will pay compensation packages to all of the staff it unceremoniously sacked without notice, to a grand total of £36,541,648, the firm said in a statement released yesterday.
it says 40 employees will receive more than £100,000, with some exceeding £170,000, and no payouts will be less than £15,000.
“Employees are also being given support to find a new job at sea or onshore, support is being given to those who don’t get a new job, and a comprehensive employee assistance programme is available,” the company said through PR agency New Century Media, claiming this had been the basis of offers made last week.
“Some employees are receiving 91 weeks’ pay and the chance of new employment,” the agency said.
Reacting to the offer, seafarer union Nautilus said that after five days P&O had only managed to come up with an admission of guilt, not an explanation for ’its outrageous and illegal actions’.
“P&O Ferries’ shameless actions now extend to trying to buy its way out of the legal predicament, exposed by the unions, of failing in its obligation to report to the secretary of state and to consult with the recognised trades unions,” says Nautilus.
”Nautilus members have been put under intense pressure by P&O Ferries management to accept these redundancy terms whilst threatening them with withdrawal of the offer made if they talk to the press or demonstrate against the company.”
Union general secretary Mark Dickinson demanded the company reinstate all staff who were sacked.
“We are pleased to learn that the government is still considering purusing legal action and will also be investigating breaches of the National Minimum Wage and the terms of agency woprkers’ contracts.” he said.
A spokesperson for P&O Ferries said: “This has been an incredibly tough decision for the business: to make this choice or face taking the company into administration.
“This would have meant the loss of 3,000 jobs and the end of P&O Ferries. In making this hard choice, we have guaranteed the future viability of P&O Ferries, avoided large-scale and lengthy disruption, and secured Britain’s trading capacity.”
