brad465
Established Member
Ministers are reviewing all P&O contracts across Government and Shapps is questioning if the move was legal:
UPDATE: Shapps and Kwarteng appeared to send letters to the Chairman who resigned in December last year:
P&O Ferries sackings: Government to review contracts with ferry firm
The transport secretary has questioned whether the firm's dismissal of 800 staff was legal.
www.bbc.co.uk
All P&O Ferries contracts across government will be reviewed in response to the way it sacked 800 workers.
Staff have been protesting after many were told without warning by video message on Thursday that it would be "their final day of employment".
In a letter to the company, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he was "deeply concerned" at the move and questioned whether it was legal.
P&O said it was a "last resort" to save the business.
Mr Shapps urged the company to pause the redundancies announced.
Protests have been staged in Dover, Liverpool, Hull and elsewhere in the UK against the P&O redundancies.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has also written to the ferry operator's chief executive demanding answers to P&O Ferries' handling of the redundancies.
Mr Kwarteng's letter to its boss Peter Hebblethwaite says the company "appears to have failed" to follow the correct process for making large-scale redundancies, which would include consulting with unions and staff representatives and notifying him through the Insolvency Service and the Redundancy Payment Service.
The letter says failure to notify is "a criminal offence and can lead to an unlimited fine".
Mr Kwarteng's questions to P&O Ferries include asking for details on the exact number of redundancies and how many of these involved any consultation, as well as the location of work for each staff member dismissed.
Additionally, he asked if staff made redundant were offered alternative roles directly for P&O Ferries or similar roles on new terms and conditions through an agency.
The business secretary also raises the company's previous application for government support when Covid lockdowns disrupted travel.
"It is particularly depressing that this should happen given the millions of pounds of British taxpayer support P&O companies received from the furlough scheme," he wrote.
UPDATE: Shapps and Kwarteng appeared to send letters to the Chairman who resigned in December last year:
It seems like Grant Shapps and Kwasi Kwarteng have written strongly worded letters to a man who resigned as P&O chairman on 16th December 2021...
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