P&O sackings: Grayling law change might let ferry firm off hook
Boris Johnson took a hard line at Prime Minister’s Questions when he suggested that the sackings of 800 P&O Ferries staff may have “broken the law”. But a change in the law, signed off four years ago by then-transport secretary Chris Grayling, may have saved the shipping company from prosecution.
According to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, an employer who makes over 100 people jobless must alert the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy 45 days in advance.?
The original legislation was intended to help workers secure jobs, by sharing their information with organisations like Job Centre Plus.
Yet in February 2018, the Department for Transport signed off an amendment – part of a wider “Seafarers Directive” – which removed the legal requirement for companies like P&O to notify the government if their ships are registered abroad.?
This may have inadvertently offered P&O a legal lifeline. To make matters worse, the memorandum was supported at the time by the RMT, the trade union which this week threatened to take P&O to court.
It’s hardly Grayling’s first embarrassment,?having once awarded?Seaborne Freight?a Brexit ferry contract despite the company not owning any ships. The PM might consider making him walk the plank.