Why P&O Ferries must be punished over mass sackings – Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Peter Gruen, Leeds.

LET’S be frank and call it out. The sacking of 800 loyal P&O workers with zero notice, discussion or any immediate support systems in place is an absolute disgrace (The Yorkshire Post, March 18 and 19).

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That it is possible for an employer in 2022 to dismiss their workforce via a four minute video call and tell them they are redundant with immediate effect is shattering.

Protesters stand outside the P&O building at the Port of Hull, East Yorkshire, after P&O Ferries suspended sailings and handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices.Protesters stand outside the P&O building at the Port of Hull, East Yorkshire, after P&O Ferries suspended sailings and handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices.
Protesters stand outside the P&O building at the Port of Hull, East Yorkshire, after P&O Ferries suspended sailings and handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices.

On top of that, listening today to the sad accounts of demoralised (ex) staff being “escorted” off their work sites by balaclava-clad security guards with handcuffs at the ready shames P&O management and is a new low of the unacceptable face of unscrupulous employers.

The final insult of having busloads of new cheaper foreign workers at the ready in the docks is the stuff of nightmares. You simply cannot believe it is the Britain of today.

What is to be done? At the time of writing I have yet to hear a senior minister unequivocally condemn the P&O management or call for an immediate repayment of the alleged £10m in furlough payments plus other grants, which this company took. Nor should it be possible for any Government contracts to find their way to this company.

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If such behaviour remains unpunished, no one will ever believe that this government has any affinity with working people.

Protesters stand outside the P&O building at the Port of Hull, East Yorkshire, after P&O Ferries suspended sailings and handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices.Protesters stand outside the P&O building at the Port of Hull, East Yorkshire, after P&O Ferries suspended sailings and handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices.
Protesters stand outside the P&O building at the Port of Hull, East Yorkshire, after P&O Ferries suspended sailings and handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices.

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

EVERYTHING is going to be more expensive so we must learn to follow the old adage “Cut your coat according to your cloth”.

The trouble is that we really have been able to indulge mostly in what we wanted. Now is the time to start ensuring that we become self-sufficient as a country and try to buy foods that are in season, drive our cars at a slower pace and put on an extra jumper if the temperature drops.

Classes in food and household management and subjects like woodworking should be reintroduced into the school curriculum. We can manage if we really put our minds to it.

Protesters stand outside the P&O building at the Port of Hull, East Yorkshire, after P&O Ferries suspended sailings and handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices.Protesters stand outside the P&O building at the Port of Hull, East Yorkshire, after P&O Ferries suspended sailings and handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices.
Protesters stand outside the P&O building at the Port of Hull, East Yorkshire, after P&O Ferries suspended sailings and handed 800 seafarers immediate severance notices.

From: Henry Cobden, Ilkley.

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I AM totally appalled that P&O have treated their staff so shabbily and will never use the firm’s ferries again.

Also galling was the failure of Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge to bring this up during her Sunday morning interviews with Rishi Sunak and Rachel Reeves.

This newspaper often mocks the “London Government” – and with justification. The same could also be said of “London broadcasters” in instances like this.

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