P&O Ferries to cut 1,100 jobs – but owner to pay out £270m in dividends

P&O Ferries has announced plans to cut 1,100 jobs after reporting a severe downturn in demand.

The cuts, affecting more than a quarter of the group’s workforce, come after the firm’s owner, the Dubai-based DP World, had been seeking about £150m in UK government aid. It is also only two months since DP World said it would be paying its investors about £270m in dividends.

P&O operates passenger ferries between Dover and Calais, as well as Hull to Rotterdam and Zeebrugge, plus services across the Irish Sea. It also says it transports 15% of all goods in and out of the UK, according to The Guardian.

A P&O spokesman said: “Since the beginning of the crisis, P&O Ferries has been working with its stakeholders to address the impact of the loss of the passenger business.

“It is now clear that right-sizing the business is necessary to create a viable and sustainable P&O Ferries to get through COVID-19. Regrettably, therefore, due to the reduced number of vessels we are operating and the ongoing downturn in business, we are beginning consultation proceedings with a proposal to make around 1,100 of our colleagues redundant.”

It is understood that the company will initially offer employees voluntary redundancies, leaving the business with about 3,000 employees.

P&O has already furloughed about 1,400 staff, the majority of whom the company said were in its passenger business.

The firm has also received some further government assistance via a freight scheme announced by the Department for Transport last month, although P&O would not reveal how much the support was worth, according to The Guardian.

P&O declined to say where in the company it expected the job losses to fall and said the lasting cuts were planned instead of additional furloughing as the business needed to get through COVID-19 and beyond.

“This is devastating news and an appalling betrayal of the P&O work force,” says RMT General Secretary Mick Cash.

“This is a kick in the teeth for P&O seafarers who have maintained key supply lines to the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What is utterly shameful is P&O have been kept afloat by our members and the taxpayer whilst their owners have been paying out hundreds of millions in dividends in Dubai and cooking up plans to permanently replace UK seafarers with low cost seafarers from thousands of miles away.

“This is an attack on British seafarers, crew and the biggest fear is that these jobs will never return to Dover or Hull. But you can guarantee that P&O ferries will still be running passenger ferry services from those ports to protect their owner’s profits at the country’s expense.

“We are seeking urgent talks with the company and will fight tooth and nail against these job losses, and we are calling on the government to step in now and nationalise these services to protect jobs and the UK’s maritime interests.”