P&O Ferries boss apologises ahead of hearing tomorrow amid PM claims company broke law
P&O’s chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite apologised today to his staff ahead of tomorrow’s joint parliamentary hearing as Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed the ferry operator has broken the law.
Hebblethwaite said sacking almost 800 seafarers was an “incredibly difficult decision” but necessary to save the company.
“I want to say sorry to the people affected and their families for the impact it’s had on them, and also to the 2,200 people who still work for P&O and will have been asked a lot of difficult questions about this,” he said in a statement.
“Over the last week, I’ve been speaking face-to-face to seafarers and their partners. They’ve lost their jobs and there is anger and shock, and I completely understand. I wish there was another way and I’m sorry.”
Hebblethwaite’s apologies come as Prime Minister Boris Johnson became the latest to raise doubts over the legality of P&O’s layoffs.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said during today’s Prime Minister questions that it appears to him that the company has “broken” the law.
“I can tell him that we will not sit by because […] it looks to me as though the company concerned has broken the law, and we will be taking action, therefore, and we will be encouraging workers themselves to take action,” Johnson said during PMQs.
The chief executive is expected to appear tomorrow in front of a Department for Transport (DfT) and Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) joint committee.
According to the committee’s chairs, MPs Huw Merriman and Darren Jones, the session will focus on the reasons behind the mass firings and whether they were legally justifiable.
“The cruel nature of their dismissal put employment practices and UK plc under the microscope,” Merriman and Jones said.