P&O Ferries to Make a Major Announcement.

I was going to suggest that existing staff should take the ships out and scuttle them but that would actually suit the owners in cleaning their hands of the ships and getting the insurance money.

Old article but Irish Ferries seem to have done it in 2006. What would the pay here be and what laws would they be using..?

In a statement Irish Ferries said: “As is common practice in international maritime shipping and cruising, Irish Ferries uses the services of expert providers to crew its ships, as it has done since 2006. 

If it wasn't viable you'd think they'd shut it down.

This seems like cost cutting solely on pay and conditions.

At least it didn't make them walk the plank mid-voyage

It depends if they are real or engineered losses.

Yes. Flag of convenience is the term.

Irish Ferries did something similar in 2006 - you'll notice all their ships are registered in Limassol and fly the Cyprus flag.

They therefore only have to adhere to the laws and regulations of Cyprus - one immediate benefit being that Cyprus has no legally defined minimum wage for example.

The company didn’t say they’re losing £100 million a year. They said they’d lost £100 million “year on year” - meaning in the last year. Last year was very obviously an exceptional one in the business of international travel, but all signs are that this year will be better.

Basically it looks like they’re using the excuse of coming out of a year of Covid damage to their business to completely restructure their labour arrangements to the detriment of their staff (both the current/outgoing ones and proposed replacements). A cynical and opportunistic move.

I don't pretend to know all the financial details of P+O Ferries, but it wasn't covid that hurt the freight industry last year, it was Brexit. I know first hand that Covid and all the home deliveries led to bumper years for a lot of people, but Brexit and all its bullshit with customs paperwork and duties was a huge factor in changing the supply chains into Ireland, and freight dependant ferries obviously suffered because of it.

The point being that covid has gone but the Brexit problems have not, which means that last year very likely may not be exceptional at all. For example, for our own company we have solid plans to move our supply chains to be direct from France to Ireland cutting out the UK landbridge altogether. We are hardly unique, and if I owned a ferry operating from Larne or Dublin right now then I would be very concerned about the future.

Great time to do it while all news outlets are concentrated on Ukraine

Whilst losing money is not a viable business model how they have done this is despicable

Exactly like happened here 16 years ago.

No first class flights to Dover, could be an issue for her participating

What a scummy thing for the owners to do.