UK IX: This Economy Will Self-Destruct In...

[fishbowlhead]

By not doing their first one - wasn't that kind of the point?

Dam beat me to it.

[Anpanman]

P&O make me invoke one of may favourite words.
Scumbags.

[Lebowski]

P&O make me invoke one of may favourite words.
Scumbags.

Also massively illegal, you cant just sack 800 people and then instantly replace them with cheaper labour, I'm fully expecting P&O to be hit with 800 unfair dismissal trials, mass redundancy without any due cause because you can employ a cheaper workforce is exactly why we have employment laws in this country. No consultation no notice period for their staff, hopefully they will be fined heavily for the laws they have broken, i can see a lot of the UK public boycotting them going forward too.

[Asura]

Also massively illegal, you cant just sack 800 people and then instantly replace them with cheaper labour, I'm fully expecting P&O to be hit with 800 unfair dismissal trials, mass redundancy without any due cause because you can employ a cheaper workforce is exactly why we have employment laws in this country. No consultation no notice period for their staff, hopefully they will be fined heavily for the laws they have broken, i can see a lot of the UK public boycotting them going forward too.

The BBC news had someone saying "it's not illegal, just it defies convention".

I'm starting to think we have too much ****ing "convention" in this country. Too many gentleman's agreements. Laws only appear to exist for things that poor people do.

[Lebowski]

The BBC news had someone saying "it's not illegal, just it defies convention".

I'm starting to think we have too much ****ing "convention" in this country. Too many gentleman's agreements. Laws only appear to exist for things that poor people do.

Everywhere ive read is quoting that if they are making more than 20 employees redundant, then their must be a 45 day consultation period with employees and trade unions this didnt happen, (A lot of law firms are pointing this out and its also the line that citizens advice are putting out too). Theirs is also a lot of talk about litigation against P&O for unfair dismissal, the only reason for these redundancy's are because they can use a cheaper workforce, so theirs a pretty good case against them.

[QualityChimp]

I think the decision will be challenged, but it's believed that P&O operated under maritime law, so can get away with it:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/18/there-were-grown-men-in-tears-po-crews-stunned-by-sackings

"The new workers will be employed by an agency, and the RMT understands that employees will be paid less, with a possibility that European employees could receive below minimum wage on the Calais to Dover crossing since this operates under international maritime law, as Irish Ferries has done. They are not expected to receive sick pay or holiday."

However, P&O have some form for this. From 2021:

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/11/white-cliffs-of-dover-shipping-companies-labor-conditions

"Much of the change owes to P&O, today Dubai-owned but until 2006 a British shipping and logistics giant. One of the most longstanding ferry operators in the Port of Dover, the firm is a household name in Britain. But in recent times it has enacted a wave of redundancies, 670 in Dover last June alone. During this round of layoffs — spurred by reduced traffic due to pandemic-era travel restrictions — P&O announced its intention to retire the Pride of Burgundy and reduce its overall operation by three vessels.

With the arrival of Irish Ferries threatening its market share, P&O brought the vessel back. After redundancies, it turned to an agency crew — meaning the staff would not be hired in-house by P&O, but by a recruiter paid by the shipping giant to source staff."

I understand that P&O are having financial difficulties, but this really isn't the way to try to resolve them.

[QualityChimp]

I should also mention that Freeports are the government’s big idea to encourage trade post-Brexit with simpler customs and tax regulations, but all it appears to be leading to is deregulation.

P&O are going to give the temp workers a week of training, so nothing can go wrong.

Johnson said our membership of the EU is what was stopping us from setting up freeports, but the Union already has 80 of them.

Last October, Labour proposed a law to ban "fire & rehire" practices, but Johnson whipped his MPs to block it:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-58997916

[gunrock]

Fire and rehire should be illegal. It's contempt for your workers writ large.

I bet P&O put out a glossy shareholder brochure for their AGM every year, that has pictures of happy, smiling workers (probably staged by photogenic models) and some text somewhere in the CEO's introduction that says "our employees are our greatest asset".

[Asura]

Is it weird that I'm particularly galled that P&O fired the staff via a pre-recorded video?

If you're going to lay off your workforce you can have the decency to go to meet them and look them in the eye when you do it.

I would be tempted to criminalise that.

[Neon Ignition]

Sony announces new State of Play streaming event exclusively for employees:

->Open Spoiler<-

[Dogg Thang]

I know a local company where people I know worked and they made them sit through a PowerPoint presentation on how great the company was doing before telling about half the people in the room they were fired.

[QualityChimp]

I know a local company where people I know worked and they made them sit through a PowerPoint presentation on how great the company was doing before telling about half the people in the room they were fired.

At a previous job, the boss had a random brick on his desk.

When I asked him about it, he told me about how Ibstock Brick got a load of the workers in at lunch and told them they needed to finish off their shift in the afternoon and then they would be made redundant.

The brick he had was the result of that afternoon shift and instead of the imprint of IBSTOCK on it, it said BOLLOCKS.

[Asura]

I know a local company where people I know worked and they made them sit through a PowerPoint presentation on how great the company was doing before telling about half the people in the room they were fired.

I remember when one of the major UK games companies first went under; they were in the same building as a major hotel chain and it started to circulate on Twitter that the staff had all arrived at work one day and found everything padlocked and were just standing around.

Around 10am the directors sent one junior AP with a key, who had to let everyone in and tell them that they could get their stuff and had to leave within 30 minutes and would receive instructions via email.

I was experiencing this vicariously through stuff posted online (which is why I haven't named them) but it was clear that the directors didn't have the iron to go down and sort things out themselves.

Ever since I've been irked at the idea of letting someone go without a personal touch. At one of my jobs, I worked there years and on the last day, they took my swipecard (standard procedure, fine) but then suggested I leave via the back fire door as that didn't have a card reader. I told them I was leaving by the front door, and while I didn't think they had malicious intent, they needed to think more, in future, about the message that leaves departing staff.

[Neon Ignition]

I work in Recruitment... I've seen a fair old share of Fire and Hire deployed

[Lebowski]

I think the decision will be challenged, but it's believed that P&O operated under maritime law, so can get away with it:

BBC news are saying

The government is looking "very closely" at the action P&O Ferries has taken to see if they broke any laws after it fired its employees, planning to replace them with cheaper agency staff, it said.