P&O Ferries told to stay in port

[MichaelT]

For your information I have read the thread and you did not quote or re-quote anyone in your post? See below

If it is true then I hope everyone avoids them whatever they charge (assuming they will cut prices) and support UK jobs, of course if it is linked to Brexit like someone said above this will exclude those who voted to leave as they can reap the benefits if they wish

Whatever as I said quoting someone above in the post.

 

[minesapint]

Seems to be the 'in thing' unfortunately.
My daughters partner works for Network Rail. They were all called into a meeting a couple of weeks back. Contracts being terminated. They've to now travel outside their areas, adding btwn 1.5-3 hrs to their day, at their own cost, both time and fuel. And the new contract is worse terms with a 5% pay cut.
Obviously on top of all the current cost of living rises this is going to be devastating. And these are guys earning around £30k or less.
Could be fun on the railways once the unions get involved.

It is now.

When it was EU to EU port calls never leaving EU waters they needed EU staff paid at EU rates.

Now the UK is 'offshore' P&O can employ staff from anywhere in the world paid at local rates and rules for that country.

Why pay a UK seaman £15 ph and he only works a 40 hr week
when you can employ a person from a 2nd world country for £2 ph and he works a 80 hr week ?

This a genuine Brexit Benefit (If you own a ferry, and not one of the staff)

Found this on another site which may explain a lot.
[[[Apparently they can get away with these tactics because they have used EU laws instead of British also all their boats are registered in Cyprus I believe thus allowing them to circumnavigate British laws and also owned by a dubai company. How nice of the good old EU.]]

 

[Ivory55]

If the payment is enough to pay off their mortgage, take the money and screw the system for all that they can get would be my plan. There seems to be enough in the system for others

 

[orridge]

Found this on another site which may explain a lot.
[[[Apparently they can get away with these tactics because they have used EU laws instead of British also all their boats are registered in Cyprus I believe thus allowing them to circumnavigate British laws and also owned by a dubai company. How nice of the good old EU.]]

No sure thats accurate as the French based staff are not affected it was reported.

 

[Langtoftlad]

EU employment law would have protected these P&O staff... just saying...

No it wouldn't
Foreign owned company
EU or UK* employment legislation isn't applicable
*pretty much all EU legislation was written into UK law

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[Langtoftlad]

why, that would just cause other jobs to be lost.

They are supposed to follow collective consultation with staff, if your company has more than 30 employees, and UK based ? was this not done? or not uk based?

P&O have said severance will be enhanced in lieu of the short notice & lack of consultation.

This is not a British nor EU company.

 

[Bartyfixedit]

I used to work for them at Dover so I am not the slightest bit surprised. Money, money, F*** the staff.

 

[nicholsong]

Nobody has said who is in command of the vessels.

Are the Captains still on board?

What happens if a fire breaks out? Who takes control?

 

[DuxDeluxe]

EU employment law would have protected these P&O staff... just saying...

They are all RMT members (crew) and under UK Union work contracts. Think it is a bit like London underground……….

 

[dash300]

Well London Underground drivers are on £56k plus bonuses, 44 day annual leave and retire at 60 on a healthy pension, heaven knows what a ship driver is on, so no wonder they are trying to drive down costs!

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[Jonny1953]

Well London Underground drivers are on £56k plus bonuses, 44 day annual leave and retire at 60 on a healthy pension, heaven knows what a ship driver is on, so no wonder they are trying to drive down costs!

Cross channel ferry skipper could be on £70 k plus

 

[Rumour and Innuendo]

Tiresome to say the least...

Spoken like a true leaver. It is a B word bonus, for the company. Bad for the ones who have been made redundant. That is another thing Johnson didn't tell us would happen!

 

[Googlebot]

Cross channel ferry skipper could be on £70 k plus

They earn it too.

 

[DuxDeluxe]

They earn it too.

Yes…..and not because it is the most boring shipmaster job going. One Captain described it as being a glorified bus driver carrying out a stressful but highly repetitive task day in day out but under immense pressure for scheduling from management and not losing a single minute. It was bad enough deep sea, where they sent a harbour pilot out to do the fun bits

 

[Jonny1953]

I was shipping based doing marine surveys and inspections for 12 years. Worked all over the place - the last 3 years I was running the Mid East operation through the whole peninsula but had to get out. Got given a cushy job in Geneva head office when I left

Shipping company or class?

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[dash300]

Yes…..and not because it is the most boring shipmaster job going. One Captain described it as being a glorified bus driver carrying out a stressful but highly repetitive task day in day out but under immense pressure for scheduling from management and not losing a single minute. It was bad enough deep sea, where they sent a harbour pilot out to do the fun bits

And yet a Tube driver follows rails and watches lights for £56K. Soon to be replaced by an automated series of semi conductors with no need for a Union to represent them.

 

[Tombola]

They earn it too.

And soldiers are on what ?

 

[Googlebot]

And soldiers are on what ?

No idea, a lot less I suspect.

Navy Captains however, probably the same.

I didn’t say it was fair.

 

[Tombola]

No idea, a lot less I suspect.

Navy Captains however, probably the same.

I didn’t say it was fair.

Along the same lines as pilots, hundreds of lives the their hands, but as for difficult tough job and 70k ..WOW.
RMT and tube/train drivers complete and utter overpaid. probably the last of the 70s overaid and under worked crews

 

[emjaiuk]

I used to work for them at Dover so I am not the slightest bit surprised. Money, money, F*** the staff.

Whilst there may be a degree of truth in what you say, accountants certainty seemed to have a bigger and bigger say as time went on, my own impressions after working with the company since the ships were green and P&O ferries were light blue, are that they are finally getting rid of historical employment costs. Prior to the previous industrial dispute I referred to it seemed as the majority of small shop owners, taxi drivers etc. in Dover worked on the boats. These very generous working conditions probably dated back to Townsend Thorenson days, when the company was a licence to print money. It was reckless investments of excess profits that sent them down and allowed P&O to take them over. Trouble with generous working conditions is that once given they're not given up willingly.

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[Martyn911]

Read all about. Read it in The Times of London tomorrow.

 

[DuxDeluxe]

And yet a Tube driver follows rails and watches lights for £56K. Soon to be replaced by an automated series of semi conductors with no need for a Union to represent them.

Yes….. Shiphandling (these guys don‘t use tugs, just thrusters) is a repetitive job same berths day in day out but the scope for expensive error is high. Have a read of the Herald of Free Enterprise MAIB report; a real eye opener.

 

[PaddyM]

I can only in some small way action my protest at companies who flaunt decency in the face of injustice and murder and war crimes , P and O , Shell, franchisees in Russia and their UK apologists , we are living in the saddest of times , those poor workers , I feel so sorry for them .
Sometimes I think that nuclear Armageddon would be the best outcome for Earth , a reset without the scourge of humans .

 

[AXO66]

800 folks and families in Dover affected. Will do our best not to give P&O any money in the future

 

[georgio]

P&O have said severance will be enhanced in lieu of the short notice & lack of consultation.

This is not a British nor EU company.

EU law didn't save Seafrance the French co when twice as many French workers 1600 plus 200 on the English side lost their jobs . I hope p&o survive to give the other operators competion but I expect in a few years it will fold. Charging 30% less and taking nearly twice as long is not a good business model and not forgetting the shenanigans of calais being blocked by fishermen

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[Bartyfixedit]

The captains are also the pilots, they are not easily replaced unless they have their own deal.

 

[Bartyfixedit]

No pilot on board--No entry to port.

 

[Bartyfixedit]

Whilst there may be a degree of truth in what you say, accountants certainty seemed to have a bigger and bigger say as time went on, my own impressions after working with the company since the ships were green and P&O ferries were light blue, are that they are finally getting rid of historical employment costs. Prior to the previous industrial dispute I referred to it seemed as the majority of small shop owners, taxi drivers etc. in Dover worked on the boats. These very generous working conditions probably dated back to Townsend Thorenson days, when the company was a licence to print money. It was reckless investments of excess profits that sent them down and allowed P&O to take them over. Trouble with generous working conditions is that once given they're not given up willingly.

I was an engineer from Townsend days.
I left when working conditions became so bad that I honestly believed that my physical and mental health was suffering. Minimum of 14 hours a day on the plates for 7 days with at least one main sleep period broken by drills.
Yes, things were really good when I first joined Townsend.
Once P&O took over and eventually got live aboard, and 2 crew working, then it was far from good. Week on week off ad infinitum with reduced manning, and increased workload due to new regulations and added bureaucracy.
My hearing is wrecked.
My Knees are wrecked.
They had their monies worth out of me.
I certainly wouldn't step foot on one of their ships now. They have sacked a skilled workforce to replace them with foreign agency staff with no experience with the vessels or the route. They have asked a group of learner drivers to navigate across the busiest shipping lane in the world.
I would ask how come, if they are so hard up, why have they ordered 2 brand new ships for the Dover Calais route? What is Arabic for Oligarch?

 

[DuxDeluxe]

The captains are also the pilots, they are not easily replaced unless they have their own deal.

No pilot on board--No entry to port.

Yes, the Ferry Captain in most of these types of port are licensed to be their own Pilot.

 

[DuxDeluxe]

They have asked a group of learner drivers to navigate across the busiest shipping lane in the world

Yes, the Dover straits are awful, especially at the Far Eastern end when traffic splits and comes and goes from several different directions. Extremely stressful and those Ferry captains are experts at curing through it all, even those utter planks in their yachts who “just want to have a close look at that big gas ship” - under normal circumstances, a mile is a close quarters situation

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