Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
P&O sackings show why laws to protect workers are so important
When global companies are unconstrained by law, they are free to treat their workers like commodities, PROF KEITH EWING explains

CONSERVATIVE and Labour politicians at Westminster have been queuing up in Parliament and in front of mics to express their outrage at P&O Ferries for the “dismissal by Zoom” of 800 seafarers.   

Some seem genuinely bewildered about how such things can happen, and others have gone so far as to suggest the need for emergency legislation, though to do what is unclear.

But as well as point the finger at the employer, some of these politicians might also want to look in the mirror and ask themselves about their own responsibility for the company’s announcement.  

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
NHS workers on the picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital, London, ahead of a march from the hospital to Trafalgar Square, May 1, 2023
Features / 19 July 2025
19 July 2025

The Bill addresses some exploitation but leaves trade unions heavily regulated, most workers without collective bargaining coverage, and fails to tackle the balance of power that enables constant mutation of bad practice, write KEITH EWING and LORD JOHN HENDY KC

Junior doctors on the picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital, London, during their continuing dispute over pay. Picture date: Thursday June 27, 2024
Workers' Rights / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR

Oversold: the New Deal for Workers promised by the Labour le
Features / 27 March 2025
27 March 2025
Falling short of what was promised: many of the new rights in the Employment Rights Bill have defects or escape loopholes that all need addressing, writes LORD JOHN HENDY KC