Employment: P&O Ferries looks to 'compensation packages'
The Ferry Company P&O is facing significant reputational and financial damage in the Courts after they dismissed 800 members of staff with immediate effect on 17th March 2022.
It has been reported that P&O Ferries has dismissed staff and replaced them with agency workers.
It appears that the company is trying to avoid the need to renegotiate terms with existing members of staff and their representatives.
The 800 staff members which have been dismissed are eligible to pursue claims for unfair dismissal should they wish to.
What is the law for group dismissal?
When dismissing more than 100 members of staff at once an employer must carry out a minimum of 45 days collective consultation with trade unions/elected employee representatives. If an employer fails to carry out such consultation, then staff can take the matter to the Employment Tribunal. If the employee is successful, the employer would have to pay up to 90 days full pay for each employee.
The failure to follow the consultation process, it is highly likely that the members of staff who were dismissed will succeed in their Employment Tribunal claims as the dismissal would be found to be procedurally unfair.
What will the dismissed staff do next?
P&O Ferries has said that those who have been dismissed will be compensated for the lack of notice with enhanced “compensation packages” in order to compensate them for the lack of warning and consultation. If the package offered by P&O Ferries is equivalent to 90 days pay on top of their redundancy package and notice, this is what the staff would be awarded before an Employment Tribunal should they succeed in their claims. Therefore, employees will need to make serious consideration as to whether it will be worthwhile accepting the enhanced terms or whether they should pursue the matter before the Employment Tribunal.
Read our related article on Fire and Re-Hire Schemes
An end to Fire and Re-hire Schemes? Read more about the:
Employment and Trade Union Rights
(Dismissal and Re-engagement) Bill and
Government's second reading of the Bill in the House of Commons
Vaishali Thakerar, Director and Head of Employment
Lawson West Solicitors, Leicester
"P&O Ferries obviously had their reasons for making the redundancies at this time and thinking it was acceptable to do so in the manner in which they carried them out. The fall-out of the way in which the dismissals were made and announced has clearly been reputationally catastrophic for the business, a business which has been operating for over 180 years in ferry travel and recognised for putting customers at the heart of everything they do. When the government steps in and says the workers' treatment was "wholly unacceptable", you have to ask yourself why a different approach was not adopted."
At Lawson West we are experienced employment lawyers acting for small, medium-sized and large businesses. If you need any advice on redundancies, consultation or enhanced packages/settlement agreements, then please do contact Lawson West Solicitors on 0116 212 1000 and we would be more than happy to give you specialist advice in this area.
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