The boss of scandal-hit P&O Ferries has admitted he couldn’t live on the £4.87 an hour some of its workers are paid.
Peter Hebblethwaite appeared before MPs nearly two years on from when it controversially fired 786 crew and replaced them with low-paid agency workers. The UK minimum wage rose to £11.44 an hour in April. But the rates do not apply to maritime workers employed by an overseas agency who work on ships which are foreign-registered in international waters.
Mr Hebblethwaite confirmed previous analysis of payslips that showed P&O agency workers have, in some cases, been earning about £4.87 an hour. Labour MP Liam Byrne, chair of the Business and Trade Committee, asked him: “Are you basically a modern day pirate?” Mr Hebblethwaite did not respond directly to the accusation.
Mr Byrne later asked: “Do you think you could live on £4.87 an hour?” The chief executive said: “No, I couldn’t.” Mr Hebblethwaite revealed he earned £508,000, including a bonus of £183,000 last year. He repeatedly insisted that P&O’s workers were not being exploited.
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PA)
“We are paying considerably ahead of the international minimum standard,” he said. “We believe that it is right that as an international business operating in international waters, we should be governed by international law.” He added: “All we want is a level playing field with our competitors.”
Labour MP Charlotte Nichols repeatedly urged Mr Hebblethwaite to commit to an independent investigation into the company’s employment practices.
He replied: “You can take from the retention levels that the crewing agent experiences and their ability to recruit the highest standard of international seafarers is hard evidence that people who could work anywhere in the world on any ships have chosen to work for P&O.”
The Government promised to close the pay loophole for maritime workers in UK waters two years ago. It said earlier this year that it expects new legislation addressing the issue to become active this summer. France brought in a similar law this year.
Mr Hebblethwaite recently agreed to sign a voluntary Government Seafarers’ Charter which commits it to pay maritime workers at least the UK minimum wage in British waters. He said the company would sign the charter “within months”. But when asked whether the legal changes would result in more lay-offs and large-scale staffing changes, Mr Hebblethwaite could not give a guarantee either way.
P&O Ferries fired employees without notice or union consultation, sparking widespread criticism from ministers, unions and the public. Yet the Insolvency Service later said it would not pursue criminal proceedings against the company, which has been owned by Dubai-based DP World since 2019.
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TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “The P&O Ferries’ scandal was a nadir for modern-day industrial relations. Yet despite illegally sacking 800 staff, bosses at P&O Ferries have shown zero remorse for their appalling behaviour.
“And today we found out that P&O Ferries is knowingly paying seafarers less than £5 an hour. Pete Hebblethwaite admitted that he couldn’t live on this poverty rate of pay – but he expects his workers to survive on it. It beggars belief that P&O Ferries has faced no sanctions for its misdeeds and that its parent company DP World has continued to be awarded government contracts.”
On the need for stronger employment laws and workers’ rights, Mr Nowak said: “This sorry saga is further proof of why we need a New Deal for Working People and a mandatory seafarers’ charter to protect seafarers. For too long parts of our labour market have resembled the wild west – with many seafarers particularly exposed to hyper-exploitation and a lack of enforceable rights.
“It’s time to drag our outdated employment laws into the 21st century. Without this, another P&O Ferries scandal is on the cards.”
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Peter Hebblethwaite should be in the dock for what his company is responsible for. Yet he is allowed to pontificate in Parliament, failing several times to be accurate and retaining bumper bonuses throughout his tenure as the head of P&O Ferries.
“Maritime communities have not recovered from the mass sackings of seafarers in 2022 and the government has not passed laws that will help deter other employers doing the same thing in the future. Our shipping industry needs investment in skills, good terms and conditions for ratings and companies like DP World which own P&O, to be ejected from the country to prevent mass exploitation of seafarers.”