P&O Ferries sackings: Change in law signed off by Chris Grayling meant P&O didn’t need to tell govt, maritime lawyer says | Business News

11 comments

  1. I was left, once again, shaking my head when I heard this. Yesterday the government were announcing how they’d be investigating and making sure P&O were brought to justice because they hadn’t been informed. Then today P&O calmly point out they didn’t have to. Surely someone should have realised before all the passionate speeches? Just seems like ridiculous incompetence.

  2. >Former Conservative transport secretary Chris Grayling is one of the best-paid MPs, with a £100,000-a-year advisory role with Hutchison Ports Europe, which operates the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich and has its parent company in the Cayman Islands. He is paid about £270 an hour. Grayling was given the go-ahead for the role by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, but said he would not do work in areas where he may have “gleaned specific information” in his ministerial job.
    >
    >Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, announced in March that [Felixstowe and Harwich would be given freeport status](https://hutchisonports.com/media/stories/port-of-felixstowe-and-harwich-international-granted-freeport-status/), where normal tax and customs rules do not apply.
    >
    >([MPs keep second job details secret – for years](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/14/mps-keep-second-job-details-secret-for-years))

    Now here is a thing:

    >*”The amendment states the notification must be made to the competent authority of the state where the ship is registered, instead of the secretary of state,”*

    Freeports themselves are by law offshore entities and therefore it doesn’t take much more for Grayling to do what he did to the on-ship workers to the Freeport workers.

  3. I thought that future Tory ministers had undone all of Chris Grayling’s incompetence (for example on prisoners having books), did they miss this one?

  6. The government will obviously be tough on it while it is in the headlines, then in 2 years time when a court case concludes it will quietly announce that the court has found the company was not technically in breach of the laws and no further action will be taken.

  8. The potentially interesting bit is that although the TUPE act amendment means that the notification is to be made to the Flag State’s competent authority, the timescale (45 days notice) remains.

    P&O, by their own admission in the CEO’s letter, only notified those authorities on the day.

    That seems like a pretty big own goal.

  9. can someone explain what the big problem is here?

    I sympathize with people being laid off, but isn’t that part of having a job? there’s always layoffs and people getting fired, sometimes a lot at once.

    Is there something particularly heinous about the P&O situation?

  10. I was thinking that Chris Grayling had been suspiciously quiet the other day.
    After Covids, Ukraine it’s time to unleash Grayling

  11. Sure, we only broke the law in a “limited and specific way” – P&O CEO. When Governments set the tone, companies will follow when it benefits them.

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