P & O

In the news again with a story of how the government have continued to award multi-million pound contracts to P&O and its parent DP World in spite of promises to review all contracts following the unlawful sackings of 800 staff last year. Can’t say I’m surprised.
 
And there it is. The beginning of the end for P&O Ferries exploitative business model.

Courtesy of Joel Hills at ITV: “Signed. Hervé Berville, the French Secrétaire d’Etat chargé de la Mer, holds up the “against social-dumping on the English Channel” decree which he says will 1) compel P&O to pay crew the french minimum wage and 2) limit the hours its crews work to 2 weeks without a break.

Berville explains that ferry operators which persistently breach the law face fines and directors could go to prison. He says Macron’s government is moving to protect seafarers and France’s maritime industry which are being undermined by the behaviour of P&O and Irish Ferries.”

Sincere thanks to Didier Le Gac for proposing this law.

Long fucking overdue! Again it takes the French to take a stand. Sadly too late really for P&O. They got what they wanted. Ripped up all the old long earned contracts, sacked all their loyal well trained crews and have had two years operating with slave labour crew to make huge profits. Wankers.
 
bluethrunthru said:
Bunch. Of. Cunts. its slavery - its Victorian Mill Owners mentality

Click to expand...


They've been doing it for decades, all shipowners have. Though in the company of despicable rats , P&O are probably the absolute worst of the worst. It's only come to light now because they've actually had the bare faced cheek to do it right on their own doorstep, with ships operating in British waters. This was something nobody thought even they would dare to do. Trust me they haven't done this without first meeting with our equally reprehensible government and getting the all clear to do so. They can hold as many public grillings as they like and ministers will bluster and express outrage a lot. It's all smoke and mirrors, nothing will be done. Nothing was ever going to be done.
I went away to sea in 1974. Jobs were plentiful. Indeed we had a training establishment in Gravesend that when I was there had over 500 lads training for a career at sea. These numbers remained constant as when one week passed out and left another intake took their place. It's now a metropolitan police training center.
We had our own employment agency with branches all over the country, the British shipping federation. You went in once a week to get your money and choose a ship. There was a large whiteboard filled with ships and the positions that needed filling. You picked one, got your travel warrant and were away for a few months. Eventually they started closing them down until we never went anywhere. We rang a central federation in Liverpool to be told "Nothing doing at the moment, call back next week."
This was a result of all the shipping companies putting their ships from being British registered to foreign registered, a flag of convenience. This allowed them to replace all the British seafarers with cheaper foreign crew.
After eight months "Waiting for a ship" I had a call for an interview with P&O Ferries in Dover. I told them I didn't want a ferry I wanted a deep sea ship. The reply was there's nothing on the horizon, go for the interview and nail your bags to the deck if you get the job. I got the job and did just that. I and many other seafarers were only there because they'd put us out of work in the first place with cheap labour. Finally, owned by a foreign state and registered in Cyprus, with a Tory government hand in glove, they did the unthinkable and replaced British seafarer's with cheap foreign labour. May all the bastards involved rot in hell. They need to pray there isn't another Falklands war because they haven't got the merchant fleet to transport the troops and equipment anymore.
 
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