Tag: workers' rights

One year on from P&O Ferries, the government is still failing workers

A year ago on Friday P&O Ferries made nearly 800 workers redundant with only half an hour’s notice. Experienced sailors with an average of 20 years on the job were replaced with inexperienced and poorly paid agency staff.

But for all the strong words from ministers, 12 months later British workers are more vulnerable than ever.

P&O Ferries was able to get away with its actions because weak UK employment meant any sanctions would be outweighed by the savings they could make on their wage bill.

We know this because the chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite openly admitted P&O Ferries had broken the law when questioned by MPs.

The government promised swift action to prevent a scandal like P&O Ferries occurring again.

But the Insolvency Service declined to pursue criminal charges for P&O Ferries’ failure to inform the authorities of its plans in time. It also hasn’t sought to disqualify P&O Ferries’ directors.

Ministers have done little to close the legal loopholes P&O Ferries exploited

The Seafarer’s Wages Bill is intended to ensure that all vessels that dock at UK ports a minimum of 120 times a year have to pay at least National Minimum Wage equivalent. This gives a lot of scope for employers to avoid it.

On top of that, the surcharges imposed on operators who fail to pay NMWe are determined by port authorities. These might be the same companies that operate the ferries; and if not they will be motivated to set the charges low to secure business from ferry operators.

In either case there is ample potential for charges to be set so low that it is economical for operators to pay well below the NMWe and pay the surcharges as the cost of doing business.

Laws intended to force employers to consult with workers, inform state authorities of their plans and do proper health and safety checks have been left untouched.

The right to strike is under attack

Not only have ministers failed to prevent another P&O Ferries, they have gone out of their way to undermine workers rights and leave them more vulnerable.

The government is rushing through legislation that could impose minimum service levels if workers in transport workers, teachers, nurses, border force, fire and ambulance services and in nuclear decommissioning take industrial action. This is a draconian attack on the right to strike.

It has already been condemned by trade unions across the world and criticised by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Rest assured if the government succeeds, it wont stop there: more and more workers will find their democratic right drastically undermined.

The government that swept to power promising to enshrine workers rights in law has done little but undermine them.

It’s been a year since the P&O Ferries sackings, but nothing has been done to stop another one.

  • ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY – NEW REPORT: Another P&O Ferries style scandal could be on the cards because of ministers’ failure to boost worker protections and close legal loopholes, TUC warns  
  • Ministers borrowing from the P&O Ferries’ playbook by attacking the right to strike and threatening to rip up hard-won workers’ rights, says union body 
  • TUC general secretary Paul Nowak to speak at RMT rally today in Hull to mark the one-year anniversary 

The Conservative government has given rogue employers a “free pass to act with impunity” after the P&O Ferries scandal – the TUC has warned, referring to the unlawful mass sacking of 800 seafarers a year ago today (Friday).  

The warning comes as the TUC publishes a new report which reveals that of the four ways P&O Ferries broke the law, the government has failed to act on every single breach – both failing to punish the company and to strengthen worker protections. 

The TUC says P&O Ferries also exploited loopholes in minimum wage law, which the government has failed to close – despite the introduction of the Seafarers Bill. 

The union body warns that without government action, another P&O Ferries-style scandal could be on the cards.  

Flagrant law-breaking 

The TUC sets out four breaches of law by P&O Ferries which have gone unpunished: 

  • The duty to consult when making collective redundancies: P&O Ferries knowingly broke the law because they could price in the low cost of the financial penalties. Following the P&O Ferries scandal, the TUC called on the government to increase protective awards and sanctions to a level that would ensure employers are deterred from brazenly flouting the law. The government did nothing. 
  • Unfair dismissal of workers: Since the P&O Ferries sackings the government has taken no action to strengthen unfair dismissal protections. Ministers have launched a consultation on a draft statutory code of practice that would apply in similar situations. But even when the statutory code is in place an employer would only face a 25 per cent increase in financial sanctions, if they flouted the law – the TUC says this won’t stop rogue employers from breaking the law. 
  • Failure to notify the relevant government authorities: P&O Ferries failed to notify the correct state authorities. This meant a jobs rescue bid couldn’t be launched. Following the P&O Ferries scandal the government has failed act, meaning that any employer making large scale redundancies can price in the likely sanction for failing to notify the authorities. 
  • Breach of Director duties: P&O Ferries’ directors admitted deliberately breaching the law – and the TUC believes that the directors breached their fiduciary duties. The Insolvency Services is responsible for the initiation of director disqualification proceedings but despite serious acts of misconduct, no action has been taken against the P&O Ferries’ directors. The government has also failed to take action to deter other directors behaving like this in the future. 

The TUC adds that the government inadequately acted after P&O Ferries bypassed the law by exploiting loopholes in minimum wage legislation. 

The new Seafarers Bill widens the scope of the minimum wage, which currently has very limited application to seafarers. 

However, the TUC warns there are gaping loopholes in the Bill, including requiring ships to make a certain number of UK stops to fall within the law, meaning that employers whose ships don’t reach a required threshold of using UK ports a certain number of times could still dodge it.  

According to the union body, when the replacement crew were first introduced after the mass sacking, P&O Ferries breached international safety standards by failing to ensure that the replacement crew were properly acquainted with safety procedures.  

Maritime inspectors listed an unprecedented 31 separate failings on a P&O Ferries vessel detained last year, ranging from problems with fire safety to lifeboat drills. 

Failing working people 

The TUC has accused the government of “failing working people” following the P&O Ferries dismissals. 

The mass sacking was a national scandal, which provoked serious uproar at the time from politicians across the political spectrum – including government ministers.  

Then business secretary Grant Shapps stated that “where new laws are needed, we will create them, that where legal loopholes are cynically exploited, we will close them, and that where employment rights are too weak, we will strengthen them.” 

Paul Scully, then business secretary, conceded that unlimited fines would be in stopping another P&O Ferries-style scandal.  

The TUC says promised sanctions failed to materialise – adding the government did not rigorously pursue P&O Ferries or change the law to prevent future conduct similar to the company’s actions. 

Pete Hebblethwaite, P&O Ferries CEO, faced calls for the sack by senior government ministers – but one year on since the mass sacking, Hebbelthwaite remains in post. 

The TUC says ministers are rewarding P&O Ferries for its law breaking with government contracts.  

The company has lucrative deals including with the Ministry of Defence, and new freeports have been awarded to DP World and P&O Ferries – despite Grant Shapps pledging to review all their government contracts since March 2022. 

Urgent action needed 

The TUC says that urgent action is needed to clamp down on fire and rehire style practices and make sure another P&O Ferries-style scandal is never allowed to happen again.  

The union body is calling on government to: 

  • Increase sanctions on employers who deliberately breach the law to provide a proper deterrent 
  • Introduce fair pay agreements to help lift wages and prevent a race to the bottom, starting in  low-paid industries, including ferries 
  • Give workers protection from unfair dismissal from day one in the job 
  • Ensure employers are required to reinstate workers where employers breach consultative duties 

TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said:  “The mass sacking by P&O Ferries was a national scandal. It should have marked a new chapter for employment rights in the UK. 

“But this Conservative government has failed working people and given rogue employers a free pass to act with impunity.  

“Despite behaving like corporate gangsters, P&O Ferries has been allowed to get away scot-free because of our lax labour laws.  

“Instead of boosting worker protections and closing legal loopholes, ministers sat on their hands and did next to nothing. 

“And to add insult to injury, ministers are now actively borrowing from the P&O Ferries playbook.  

“They are brazenly attacking the right to strike and threatening to rip up hard-won workers’ rights like holiday pay, equal pay for women and men and rest breaks.  

“Workers need more power in the workplace, not less. It’s time for the government to put in place proper protections for workers who are at the mercy of bad bosses. That starts with a fair pay agreement for the ferry sector.  

“Make no mistake. Without stronger regulation, another P&O Ferries style scandal is on the cards.” 

Neil Todd, a senior trade union lawyer at Thompsons Solicitors, who acted on behalf of the RMT union at the time, said: “P&O Ferries took the callous business decision that sacking its staff unlawfully – despite the financial penalties and public backlash it would cause – was more convenient and cheaper than engaging in meaningful consultation and complying with legal obligations.  

“What message does it send to unscrupulous employers if P&O Ferries can get away with paying out what are to them small sums and carry on trading? P&O Ferries should have been a pivotal moment in recognising UK employment law does not go far enough to protect working people, but nothing has changed and three Conservative Prime Ministers later it is clear this is not a priority for any Conservative government. 

“The financial penalties for sacking staff without notice and without any meaningful consultation need to be strengthened and there needs to be legislation that would more easily allow employees to take pre-emptive legal action before any dismissals take effect. It is only these sorts of changes which will ensure no company is emboldened ‘to do another P&O’.” 

The full report can be found here 

“I want to build a stronger more diverse trade union movement”

‘I want my time leading the TUC to focus on one thing: making the trade union movement bigger, stronger and more diverse. That’s how we win for more workers.‘

I started my working career stacking the warehouse shelves in Asda. Later on, I worked as a hotel porter, and in a call centre. I know the difference being in a union can make – and that’s why, as the TUC’s new General Secretary, my focus will always be on making sure the UK’s trade unions are growing (writes PAUL NOWAK).

The current wave of strike action has one cause: the Tories’ failure to get wages growing across the economy. Workers are on course for two decades of lost pay – the longest squeeze on earnings in modern history.

Working people have had enough. They are tired of their standard of living falling year after year.

Nurses, paramedics, rail staff, posties and other key workers have been forced into taking action to defend their livelihoods and the services they provide.

Nobody takes the decision to go on strike lightly. But this is a problem of the government’s own making. Twelve years of pay cuts have left workers with no choice. And that’s why they are out on strike – with massive public support.

And rather than sitting down with unions to negotiate a resolution, ministers seem more interested in escalating disputes.

The UK already has the most restrictive trade union laws in western Europe – but ministers are set to undermine the right to strike even more. That will tilt the balance of power even further towards bad bosses and make it harder for working people to win better pay and conditions.

Have no doubt: I will lead the union movement in opposing further restrictions on the right to strike – just as we will oppose further attacks on any rights at work, including those rights that came from the EU.

But I don’t want us to spend our time just fighting bad laws – I want the trade union movement to set out a positive vision for Britain. Because we know it doesn’t have to be like this. For too long the UK has been trapped in a vicious cycle of stagnant growth, stagnant investment and stagnant wages. Now it’s time for a proper long-term economic plan that rewards work not wealth.

Unions have the answers. We should target low-pay industries, raising pay and standards and driving out rogue operators with sector-wide fair pay agreements. And ministers, unions and employers should work together on a proper industrial strategy, delivering good green jobs, training and skills across the country.

Working people deserve a seat at the tables of power – and it’s the job of unions to get them there. That’s why, when I’m asked, I always say that my first priority is building a stronger, bigger and more diverse trade union movement.

Unions must reflect the modern multiethnic working class of the UK in 2023, promoting women and Black leaders and fighting racism and discrimination.

Unions have to grow, to represent more workers and get more workplaces covered by collective bargaining. That’s how we raise wages, improve conditions and cut inequality. It’s how we stop outrages like P&O sacking hundreds of workers on the spot, with impunity.

And unions have to be stronger and more confident. That’s how we win the argument for a growing, redistributive economy, a £15 per hour minimum wage, and a ban on zero hours contracts.

The solidarity and power of a stronger, growing and more diverse trade union movement is how we will win. It is how we turn the tide on cuts, casualisation and two decades of standstill wages. And it is how we deliver what working people are asking for – a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wage.

Join a union today

Victory for workers’ rights in INEOS refinery appeal

Unite members working at the INEOS refinery at Grangemouth have won a legal battle that strengthens collective bargaining rights and will prevent employers bypassing unions to impose pay deals on employees.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has ordered global chemical firm, INEOS, to pay compensation to 28 Unite members employed at its Grangemouth site of £3,830 each, after it tried to impose a 2.8 per cent pay award on them in 2017. Their union, Unite, had previously rejected the offer.

This latest ruling strengthens the law on ‘unlawful inducements’ to surrender trade union rights. It builds on the ground-breaking Kostal UK Lytd v Dunkley and ors case, which Thompsons successfully won alongside Unite the Union last year.

Neil Todd, trade union specialist at Thompsons Solicitors, said: “This is a key victory not only for the Unite members involved, but for all workers in trade unions across the UK.

“The right of a recognised trade union to collectively bargain on behalf of its members is fundamental to workers’ rights and this judgment makes clear that it should be respected by employers.

“Along with the Kostal case, a spotlight is finally being thrown by the courts on trade union bargaining rights and it’s not looking good for employers who think they can ignore trade unions when they choose”

The Unite members argued that imposing the pay increase outside the collective bargaining process amounted to an unlawful inducement to give up collective bargaining rights.

Documents disclosed during the legal proceedings revealed a member of the firm’s senior leadership team had suggested the company needed to “engineer a way to get rid of Unite and replace them with a different representative body” after its members refused to vote in favour of the proposed offer.

The initial tribunal in 2018 ruled in favour of the workers, but INEOS appealed the judgment and that appeal was subsequently delayed pending the outcome of the related Kostal UK Lytd v Dunkley and ors case, which had progressed to the Supreme Court.

The Kostal case saw Unite members, again represented by Thompsons Solicitors, successfully take legal action against their Rotherham-based employer for trying to bypass union pay negotiations

. This was a ground-breaking case, billed at the time as the most important trade union rights case in over a decade – and the first case in the UK’s highest court on trade union bargaining rights.

Mr Todd said: “This victory sends a clear message to employers. One, you won’t get away with issuing statements of intent to vary an employee’s pay and deem that offer accepted if the employee continues to work.

“And two, you can’t simply declare something to be “a final offer” to suggest collective bargaining is exhausted and then bypass the recognised trade union to make direct approaches to workers.

“We are delighted to build on our ground-breaking Kostal case. Both cases make clear the central role trade unions play in the workplace and should give comfort to union members up and down the country.”  

Unite says that the long-anticipated Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) judgment has huge ramifications for workers everywhere.

Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: “This is an important legal victory for Unite and the wider trade union movement.

“Employers everywhere should take note. Unite the union will use every tool at its disposal to defend collective bargaining and will not tolerate employers like INEOS trying to bypass their obligations to negotiate.”