P&O Ferry ADRIFT in the Irish Sea with up to 410 passengers aboard:…
P&O Ferry ADRIFT in the Irish Sea with up to 410 passengers aboard: RNLI launches lifeboat after ship bound for Scotland issues emergency alert saying it is ‘not under command’ while five miles out of Larne Harbour
- The European Causeway is drifting in the sea after an emergency alert from boat
- Floataway ferry bobbing about five miles off Larne Harbour after midday launch
- It caps a disastrous few weeks for operators P&O after mass sackings and fury
A gigantic P&O boat operating between Larne and Cairnryan has become adrift in the Irish Sea.
Floataway ferry The European Causeway, which can carry up to 410 passengers, is currently bobbing around five miles off Larne Harbour.
It left Cairnryan at midday – with an unknown number of people onboard – due in to Larne Harbour at 2pm.
But it never arrived, sparking the RNI to launch a lifeboat to try and investigate what had happened.
The European Causeway, which can carry up to 410 passengers, is currently bobbing around
It left Cairnryan at midday – with an unknown number of people onboard – due in to Larne Harbour at 2pm
A route tracking map appeared to show it off course and bobbing around in the Irish Sea
Its automatic identification system (AIS) says it is currently Not Under Command.
The ferry company drew national outage last month when they illegally fired nearly 800 staff members without notice over Zoom and replaced them all immediately with cheaper foreign workers.
The agency workers who were hired to replace 786 staff say they were asked to sign new contracts on even lower pay.
It is claimed that if they refused to agree they faced being out of work and one agency worker emailed the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) , declaring: ‘We are desperate.’
P&O’s boss Peter Hebblethwaite, who earns £345,000 a year, admitted firing the workers over Zoom without notice was illegal in testimony to MPs
P&O Ferries reportedly offered some of the agency workers, who replaced the near 800 staff fired last month, new contracts with even lower wages
P&O’s millionaire boss Peter Hebblethwaite, who admitted the sackings were illegal in testimony to MPs, replaced employees with cheaper £5.50-an-hour foreign agency workers.
Some crew earn just £748 a month for a 40-hour week – barely £4.50 an hour.
In one example reported by The Mirror, workers say chefs paid £2,336 a month on temporary contracts were asked to sign new deals giving them £195 a month less.
Although it is not known who faced a cut in wages, or if staff on seven other ferries were targeted too.
Darren Procter, national secretary of the RMT says some of the new workers were brought in on just a month’s contract, and when those contracts expired the staff were offered ‘inferior terms’.
The RMT are campaigning for dismissed P&O staff to be reinstated, but ‘irrespective of nationality’ are concerned for the new staff members, Mr Procter added: ‘they are just as much victims as our members.’
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