Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The chief executive of P&O Ferries accepted a six-figure bonus in 2023, just over a year after the company laid off hundreds of UK-based crew members and replaced them with temporary foreign workers paid from just £4.87 an hour, MPs said on Tuesday heard.
British ministers pledged to “take action against company leaders who break the law” after the shipping company fired 800 seafarers in 2022 without giving notice or carrying out the usual consultation.
P&O’s treatment of these employees has resulted in lasting reputational damage – most recently the collapse of a sponsorship deal with Hull KR after the rugby league club said it had “the ongoing depth of feeling that continues to exist in some parts of our community.” “, underestimated.
But boss Peter Hebblethwaite told the House of Commons business and trade committee on Tuesday that while he regretted the decision, it was legal. One of two investigations launched by the government had been closed without further action, he noted, adding that he was “confident” about the outcome of the second.
Hebblethwaite said he “thought it over” before accepting a bonus of £183,000 on top of his annual salary of £325,000 in April 2023, but “ultimately I decided to take it”.
He also confirmed that the seafarers now manning P&O’s Channel and Northern Sea routes – many flown in from the Philippines or Indonesia – receive a basic wage of around £2.90 an hour.
Total hourly pay started at £4.87, including guaranteed overtime, bonuses and holiday pay, Hebblethwaite said. He added that while it was “significantly ahead” of minimum international standards, he himself could not live on that amount.
His statement sparked an angry reaction from unions. Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, said Hebblethwaite “should be in the dock for his company’s responsibilities” and not “withhold the big bonuses”.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, the umbrella body of the British labor movement, said: “It is incredible that P&O Ferries has not received sanctions for its failings.”
P&O claims that the pay is above the minimum wage required by international maritime standards and that “as an international company operating in international waters, international law should apply”.
But the company, owned by Dubai-based DP World, may soon have to rethink its crewing model after a law was introduced in France that requires ferry operators to pay the national minimum wage and keep crew on for no longer than 14 days to keep on board.
UK legislation requiring a national minimum wage for all crew working in UK waters is also expected to come into force later this year.
Hebblethwaite told MPs that the company would “absolutely” comply with any new legislation and that this would be affordable as it would create a level playing field for the industry. He previously described the change in 2022 as vital for P&O.
But he also acknowledged that current crew members could be affected by the new rest rules, which would make it expensive to fly people over long distances for short periods of time.
PhilCrew, P&O’s crew agency, “was working with them to figure out how we could enable as many of them as possible to stay,” he said, without offering “guarantees” about what would happen to them.