{"id":153397,"date":"2024-10-14T08:52:11","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T08:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/14\/po-ferries-owner-has-turned-a-corner-since-800-staff-sacked-minister-says-as-1bn-investment-to-go-ahead\/"},"modified":"2024-10-14T08:52:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T08:52:11","slug":"po-ferries-owner-has-turned-a-corner-since-800-staff-sacked-minister-says-as-1bn-investment-to-go-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/14\/po-ferries-owner-has-turned-a-corner-since-800-staff-sacked-minister-says-as-1bn-investment-to-go-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"P&#038;O Ferries owner has &#8216;turned a corner&#8217; since 800 staff sacked, minister says as \u00a31bn investment to go ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/10\/768x432\/skynews-peter-kyle-labour_6707885.png?20241006084825&amp;resize=768,432&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"P&#038;O Ferries owner has &#8216;turned a corner&#8217; since 800 staff sacked, minister says as \u00a31bn investment to go ahead\" title=\"P&#038;O Ferries owner has &#8216;turned a corner&#8217; since 800 staff sacked, minister says as \u00a31bn investment to go ahead\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component-name=\"ui-article-body\" data-highlight-intro=\"true\">\n<p>The owner of P&amp;O Ferries has &#8220;turned a corner&#8221; since 800 staff were sacked without notice and its \u00a31bn investment is going ahead, a minister has told Sky News.<\/p>\n<p>Dubai-based company DP World, which owns P&amp;O, had considered pulling its announcement of a \u00a31bn investment in its London Gateway container port after strong criticism of it by members of Sir Keir Starmer&#8217;s cabinet.<\/p>\n<p>Government minister Peter Kyle confirmed to Sky News <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/pando-ferries-owners-1bn-investment-in-uk-will-go-ahead-despite-transport-secretary-calling-for-boycott-of-shipping-firm-13232541\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the investment is going ahead<\/a><\/strong> and said, by engaging with DP World, Labour got the company to sign up to its new workers&#8217; rights laws last week.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/politics-latest-starmer-tory-leadership-jenrick-badenoch-labour-budget-tax-rises-12593360\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Minister explains why Musk was snubbed from summit &#8211; politics latest<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Last week, Transport Secretary Louise Haigh described P&amp;O Ferries, which suddenly <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/pando-ferries-suspends-all-sailings-ahead-of-major-announcement-12568327#:~:text=News%20%7C%20Sky%20News-,P%26O%20Ferries%20makes%20800%20staff%20redundant%20and%20warns%20of%20'significant,members%20to%20stay%20on%20board.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sacked 800 seafarers in March 2022 and replaced them with cheap foreign agency workers<\/a><\/strong>, as a &#8220;rogue operator&#8221; and called for a consumer boycott.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Keir dismissed her comments in a bid to save the large investment, saying the government did not share her views, while Downing Street and Foreign Office officials are understood to have been trying to repair relations.<\/p>\n<p>They were successful and DP World&#8217;s chairman, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, confirmed he would be attending the investment summit where the announcement will be made.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-article-widget sdc-article-image\">\n<figure class=\"sdc-article-image__figure\">\n<div class=\"sdc-article-image__wrapper\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\"><\/div><figcaption class=\"ui-media-caption\">\n        <span class=\"u-hide-visually\">Image:<\/span><br \/>\n        <span class=\"ui-media-caption__caption-text\">Science Secretary Peter Kyle speaking to Sky News<br \/>\n        <\/span><br \/>\n      <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Mr Kyle told Sky News&#8217; Breakfast with Kay Burley show: &#8220;I think the country was appalled too [when P&amp;O sacked 800 workers], but we&#8217;ve all turned a corner since that time.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just last week, we introduced workers&#8217; rights legislation, which includes maritime activity too and P&amp;O, and its parent company, DP World, signed up to it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That means we&#8217;re looking to the future. DP World are here today.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That \u00a31bn worth of investment is going forward. And I&#8217;m really pleased about that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He defended the government calling P&amp;O Ferries a &#8220;rogue company&#8221; just a month ago in a press release, saying they have since signed up to the workers&#8217; rights legislation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All you have to do is engage with these companies and take them on the journey,&#8221; he said in a dig at the former Tory government.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Show that we are a brilliant place to invest, but we do expect high standards.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more from Sky News:<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/government-had-conversation-with-pando-ferries-owner-after-ministers-criticism-put-1bn-investment-under-review-13232803\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ministers had conversations with DP World to save investment<\/a><\/strong><br \/><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/employer-national-insurance-could-rise-in-budget-minister-suggests-13232836\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Employer national insurance could rise, minister suggests<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/government-had-conversation-with-pando-ferries-owner-after-ministers-criticism-put-1bn-investment-under-review-13232803\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> <\/a><\/strong>         <\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-article-widget sdc-site-video callfn\" data-account-id=\"6058004172001\" data-amp-iframe-embed=\"\" data-asset-id=\"e77300ee-9db5-4b85-a767-06a9d28f81f4\" data-asset-path=\"\" data-asset-version=\"\" data-autoplay=\"false\" data-auth-config=\"\" data-caption=\"'You chose to break the law?'\" data-clip-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"sdc-site-video\" data-competition=\"\" data-copy-url-text=\"URL copied to clipboard\" data-fn=\"sdc-site-video\" data-id=\"id_e77300ee-9db5-4b85-a767-06a9d28f81f4\" data-is-live-stream=\"false\" data-lite=\"true\" data-options=\"\" data-originator-id=\"51\" data-originator-handle=\"brightcove-news-gb\" data-package-name=\"\" data-provider=\"brightcove\" data-player-id=\"RC9PQUaJ6\" data-playsinline=\"\" data-sensitive=\"false\" data-sdc-id=\"5717453\" data-sdc-video-id=\"e77300ee-9db5-4b85-a767-06a9d28f81f4\" data-sport-category=\"\" data-state=\"loading\" data-token-state=\"none\" data-video-ad-unit=\"\" data-video-blacklisted-originator-ids=\"\" data-video-id=\"ref:e77300ee-9db5-4b85-a767-06a9d28f81f4\" data-video-type=\"\" data-auto-pause-on-not-visible=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" data-closed-captions-position=\"middle-third\" data-show-closed-captions=\"true\" data-show-pip=\"true\" data-show-live-stream-scrubber=\"true\">\n<div class=\"sdc-site-video__inner\">\n<div class=\"sdc-site-video__content\" data-role=\"bridge-controller\" style=\"padding-bottom: calc(100% \/ ());\">\n<p class=\"sdc-site-video__accessibility-message\" data-role=\"accessibility-message\">Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n<p>              <span aria-hidden=\"true\" data-role=\"poster\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster\"><br \/>\n                <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/22\/03\/768x432\/skynews-peter-hebblethwaite_5717458.jpg?20220324125155\" alt=\"P&amp;O CEO Peter Hebblethwaite appears before a committee in Westminster\" srcset=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster-img\"\/><br \/>\n              <span class=\"sdc-site-video__loader\"\/><br \/>\n                <span class=\"sdc-site-video__time\">0:37<\/span><br \/>\n              <\/span><\/p>\n<p>              <video id=\"id_e77300ee-9db5-4b85-a767-06a9d28f81f4\" data-embed=\"default\" data-application-id=\"\" class=\"video-js sdc-site-video__tag\" controls=\"\" playsinline=\"\"\/>\n            <\/div><figcaption class=\"sdc-site-video__caption ui-media-caption\">\n<p>              <span class=\"ui-media-caption__caption-text\" data-role=\"caption-text\">&#8216;You chose to break the law?&#8217;<\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Several Labour MPs were highly critical of P&amp;O Ferries boss Peter Hebblethwaite after he sacked his workers and replaced them with agency staff, as well as his decision to accept a \u00a3183,000 bonus to his \u00a3325,000 salary while some crew earned less than \u00a35 an hour.<\/p>\n<p>During an appearance before MPs earlier this year, Labour MP Liam Byrne asked if he was a &#8220;modern-day pirate&#8221; who was &#8220;robbing staff blind&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Darren Jones, now chief secretary to the Treasury, asked Mr Hebblethwaite in the week after the redundancies if he was &#8220;in this mess because you don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re doing, or are you just a shameless criminal?&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Hebblethwaite apologised to the staff he made redundant, but admitted he did not consult unions before he did so &#8211; a legal requirement &#8211; because &#8220;no union could accept our proposals&#8221; and the company had &#8220;otherwise no future&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/po-ferries-owner-has-turned-a-corner-since-800-staff-sacked-minister-says-as-1631bn-investment-to-go-ahead-13233239\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The owner of P&amp;O Ferries has &#8220;turned a corner&#8221; since 800 staff were sacked without notice and its \u00a31bn investment is going ahead, a minister has told Sky News. Dubai-based company DP World, which owns P&amp;O, had considered pulling its announcement of a \u00a31bn investment in its London Gateway container port after strong criticism of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/10\/768x432\/skynews-peter-kyle-labour_6707885.png?20241006084825","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[32783,203,5590,46234,382,2124,5900,8474,500,11156],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153399,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153397\/revisions\/153399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}