P&O Ferries scandal must be turning point for workers’ rights, says TUC

theguardian.com:

Ministers have serious questions to answer on the growing scandal at P&O Ferries and must make it a catalyst to improve workers’ rights, the Trades Union Congress said on Sunday.

The TUC accused the government of sitting on its hands and failing to protect workers after P&O sacked 800 staff on Thursday with a plan to replace them with cheaper agency workers. It has emerged that ministers were informed in advance about the mass redundancies.

The TUC’s general secretary, Frances O’Grady, demanded the government “urgently bring forward an employment bill to stop workers from being treated like disposable labour – and make sure what happened at P&O never happens again”.

She accused ministers of failing to challenge P&O on what she called “unconscionable tactics – or even question whether these actions were legal”.

O’Grady called on the company to immediately reinstate all sacked staff, without any loss of pay.

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, criticised the treatment of workers by the ferry company.

“What we are seeing is appalling, the way that they have treated their workers, it is awful, it is wrong,” Sunak told the BBC. He added that ministers were examining the company’s actions and whether they complied with regulations on dismissing workers.

Employment lawyers reacted with surprise to the company’s move to sack 800 seafarers out of the blue, and said that P&O Ferries may have broken several laws, potentially leaving it open to claims of unfair dismissal.

Over the weekend, angry protests were held at ports across the UK. Trade union leaders and politicians joined sacked P&O Ferries workers in Dover, Hull, Liverpool and Larne amid growing rage over the company’s decision, with more protests planned for the coming days, including