engine driver
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 291
- Name
- Peter
- Edit My Images
- Yes
Wot about the workers?
Grant Shapps is talking about P & O having to take the workers back, but would they want to is the big question? It is legally an absolute minefield and at the end of it could just say s0d it and close the company down leading to even more redundancies.Wot about the workers?
A better solution might be to "do a Northern Rock" on them. Take all the companies using the brand into public ownership and leave the parent company to decide what it's worth to them to get it back.Grant Shapps is talking about P & O having to take the workers back, but would they want to is the big question? It is legally an absolute minefield and at the end of it could just say s0d it and close the company down leading to even more redundancies.

Perhaps the P&O boss could use the defence that he only broke the law 'in a very specific and limited way'?So Boris had joined in with calls saying the bus should be sacked. Why? All he did was do something illegal - if he should go for that then should people go for misleading and closing parliament unlawfully or breaking covid rules?
![]()
P&O ferry detained over crew training concerns, says coastguard agency
Transport secretary Grant Shapps says ship was detained in Northern Ireland for being ‘unfit to sail’www.theguardian.com
![]()
Sacked Scots P&O workers' cabins looted after being thrown off vessels
Angry staff hit out after items such as fridges and TVs were “plundered” from their rooms, with blame pointed at low-paid workers brought in to replace them.www.dailyrecord.co.uk
I think the government has grounds for impounding the ships until the property is returned or compensation paid.
I cant see how the shareholders and owners have not taken action. They are not running, the PR and name of P&O is a disaster, What they need to do to try to salvage something is to sack the board, replace and backtrack with lots of apology!
I'm sure that there are genuine problems with safety, staff training and so on, but I strongly suspect that the inspectors have been told to apply much higher standards than usual when they're inspecting their ships.I see their Pride of Kent failed an inspection..including safety features...and documentation for the second time. Another one, Spirit of Britain was 'detained' recently after inspectors [ Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)] found serious deficiencies on board. On another, 'European Causeway.' the inspectors were not able to safely deploy lifeboats or life rafts and that was just one of 31 failures discovered. Among other flaws identified by the MCA were an inflatable evacuation slide not properly maintained, inadequate fire prevention systems and crew having a lack of familiarity with radio equipment. The ship has now passed an inspection and can sail on its route NI > Scotland. Four other ferries are also out of action as they have not yet been inspected.
If failures are found they, too,won't be allowed to sail until the issues have been rectified.
A spokesman for the company said.."We take the safety of our passengers and crew very seriously..[not seriously enough it seems] and look forward to all our ships welcoming tourist passengers and freight customers again as soon as all mandatory safety tests have been passed " Which begs the question..what about the non-mandatory safety issues ? Another statement by the company accused the MCA of working with an “unprecedented level of rigour” after it detained two of its vessels.
What struck me about this is that had they not decided to sack 800 employees and incur the ire of Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps who, I suspect, told the MCA to get involved , these ships would have been sailing and from some of the issues identified (or leaked) the company must have been operating on a wing and a prayer or more appropriately, 'sailing a bit too close to the wind'. They've operated, in the full knowledge, that there were serious deficiencies that could affect passenger safety .