P&O Ferries security ‘treated staff like criminals’

The RMT union and sacked P&O Ferries staff were protesting in Dover on Friday

After 24 hours in a state of disbelief, more sacked P&O workers are starting to talk about what happened on Thursday.

Speaking out could cost them the severance pay they've been promised, but they are angry and upset about how they have been treated.

Noah, not his real name, told us he and his colleagues were treated like criminals.

"There were guards at duty free as if we were going to burgle it," he told the BBC.

"They thought we were going to go in and help ourselves, which we wouldn't have done," he said.

"It could have been handled better. It was intimidating, it made people angry," he added.

Staff who lost their jobs on Thursday have been told not to speak to the media. They have been offered enhanced redundancy packages with certain terms attached. It is understood speaking to the media breaks these terms, causing them to forfeit those payments.

On Thursday, P&O Ferries said it was a "tough" decision making 800 staff redundant, but that the company would "not be a viable business" without the changes.

On Friday it added: "The teams escorting the seafarers off our vessels were totally professional in handling this difficult task with all appropriate sensitivity."

But many people who have spoken to the BBC in Dover anonymously in the last 24 hours are both upset and outraged by the way crew were treated.

A P&O Ferries vessel docked at Dover on Friday. Security staff boarded the ship on Thursday as sacked staff packed their belongings

Noah described his experience.

"We looked out of the window at all these people in green coats on the quayside. We had to wait on the ship. Bearing in mind - we're all sensible adults on the ship.

"There was no point staging a sit-in - it wouldn't solve anything. So, once we were told what had happened, we packed our belongings and waited for instructions to get off.

"There was security staff on the vessel who were obnoxious and rude and treated us really like criminals to be honest, the sort you'd see in a borstal, probably. It wasn't pleasant."

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"I am devastated it was our last day at work. During Covid there'd been several redundancies in the company so I wasn't expecting this one to come along," Noah said.

In Dover the crew have local friends and relatives, some of whom have joined them in their protests.

They came to collect the sacked crew from the harbour yesterday, picking them up as they came off the ships carrying bin liners filled with their personal belongings. Some said they had had to leave family photos on board in their cabins as they didn't have enough bags.

The trades unions at the protest want action and are calling on the Labour Party to do more. The RMT union says they spoke to the Labour leader Keir Starmer on Friday morning.

The government has said it is looking "very closely" at the action P&O Ferries has taken to see if they broke any laws by informing the crew they were losing their jobs with no prior consultation or warning.

The prime minister's spokesman said once they had concluded their examination they would decide what the "ramifications" were.

There were "valid questions" about contracts that the government has with the company, the spokesman added.

Noah said for him the change still hasn't properly sunk in yet.

"It's going take time to get used to not working, I've worked all my life," he said.

He enjoyed working on the ferries and is optimistic he will find work in the industry in the future.

"It has put me off working for P&O, But I've still got my bills to pay at the end of day," he added.