800 employees fired
Provider is temporarily hiring Dover-Calais
03/17/2022 10:34 p.m
There will be no ferry traffic on the route across the English Channel in the coming days, but frustrated holidaymakers and trucks that cannot get rid of their cargo are gathering at the ports. The operator of the ferry between Dover and Calais surprises with a tough step.
The British ferry operator P&O Ferries, which operates the routes from Dover to Calais and from Hull to Rotterdam, among other things, is laying off its crews with 800 employees due to financial difficulties. The market leader surprisingly announced that the connections would not be served in the coming days. “We advise travelers to make alternative arrangements.” Frustrated vacationers were stranded at the ports, long truck traffic jams formed. The British government condemned the move. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was not informed in advance, said his spokesman.
The Foreign Office also reacted to the surprising step and warned German travelers: “Ferry traffic with P&O Ferries between Dover and Calais is currently suspended. Very long waiting times and denied boarding are to be expected in both the United Kingdom and France.”
“Loss of £100m”
P&O justified the decision by saying that it would protect the other 2,200 employees. “We have lost £100m year on year which has been covered by our parent company DP World. This is unsustainable. Without these changes there is no future for P&O Ferries,” the company said. P&O still operates routes between Dublin and Liverpool and from Cairnyan in Scotland to Larne in Northern Ireland.
The RMT union was outraged. The workers were fired at short notice and with immediate effect. Some crews refused to abandon ship, the BBC reported. The PA news agency reported that handcuffed security forces were deployed to remove crew members. The union fears that the crews will be replaced with cheaper workers from Eastern Europe.
Employees at the important port of Dover protested and blocked an access road. Like many transport companies, P&O Ferries was hit hard by the corona pandemic. Passenger numbers had dropped significantly. The company transported more than 10 million travelers annually before the pandemic, as well as around 15 percent of freight in and out of the UK.