DOVER (dpa-AFX) – 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 on Thursday 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.
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. Before the pandemic, the company transported more than ten million travelers annually and around 15 percent of freight to and from Great Britain./bvi/DP/nas