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P&O and freedom of association: a memo to Keir Starmer
A Labour government would be wise to implement new recommendations from the ILO that would protect trade unionists and their right to bargain collectively, writes Professor KEITH EWING
Staff onboard the moored Pride of Kent at the Port of Dover in Kent. Delays to Channel crossings are being driven by the suspension of P&O Ferries sailings after the operator sacked nearly 800 seafarers without notice last month
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ON November 2 2023, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) freedom of association committee released its report on the P&O case. Readers may recall that on March 17 2022, P&O Ferries dismissed 786 seafarers and replaced them with agency workers recruited overseas on terms and conditions of employment greatly inferior to those of the staff they replaced.
To compound the mischief, it was alleged that the staff in question were given letters of instant dismissal and that workers on the vessels at the time of their dismissal were escorted off by hired security, passing replacement crews waiting in coaches nearby.
All this was done without prior notice, without consulting the recognised trade unions, and in breach of collective agreements between the unions and the company.
It will also be recalled that shortly after the decision was taken, P&O was the subject of excoriating criticism and its senior personnel humiliated by parliamentary committees.
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