Ferry company P&O will not be subject to criminal proceedings over the brutal sacking of 800 employees that had caused outrage in the country, British authorities said.
This government agency is responsible, among other things, for prosecuting offenders on behalf of the Ministry of Enterprise. A civil investigation is still ongoing. The company had sacked 800 seamen overnight on March 17 to replace them with contract workers paid well below the British minimum wage.
Loss of 100 million pounds per year
P&O kept saying that its cost model was unsustainable and that the company, hit hard by the pandemic and the collapse of international travel, was losing £100m a year.
The general secretary of Nautilus International, a union representing seafarers, Mark Dickinson, called the decision not to prosecute P&O “deeply disappointing,” adding that “786 sailors and their families will greet it with frustration and anger.” and their families, who have been so cruelly rejected by P&O Ferries”. He noted that this announcement comes “after the parent company of P&O Ferries announced record profits.”
A government spokesman also regretted the decision, telling the BBC that “given its bad behaviour, it is very disappointing that the company does not face criminal charges.”
Source: BFM TV
