Ex-P&O Ferries chef sues for unfair dismissal

John Lansdown is seeking damages of £76m and wants to set up a trust to protect seafarers' rights

A former P&O Ferries chef is suing the company and its chief executive, claiming unfair dismissal, racial discrimination and harassment.

John Lansdown is the only seafarer to take legal action after 800 staff were sacked without notice last month.

In his tribunal claim he accuses P&O of treating him unfavourably as he is British and eligible for minimum wage.

P&O Ferries said job cuts were "categorically not based on race or the nationality of the staff involved".

The company "needed fundamental change to make it viable - we knew this decision was the only way to save the business", P&O said in a statement.

Mr Lansdown is seeking financial compensation as well as exemplary damages of up to £76m to "deter" P&O Ferries or its parent company DP World from acting the same way in future.

He would use the money to create a new trust to campaign for improved wages and terms and conditions for seafarers and to outlaw "fire and hire" practices in the industry and more widely in the UK, according to his claim.

Mr Lansdown, 39, told the BBC he wanted to get "justice" for all his former colleagues who felt they had "no choice" but to settle their cases.

"This is not just about me," he said. "799 of my seafaring family have lost their livelihoods, their way of life, their homes for half the year and it's about the bigger picture."

P&O confirmed to the BBC that "all but one" employee had accepted a settlement and therefore forfeited their right to any legal action as a result.

John next to the Old Pride of Kent, the first ship he joined aged 16

Mr Lansdown said he joined P&O Ferries as a 16-year-old trainee and was working as a sous chef on The Pride of Canterbury when he was sacked three weeks ago.

He was working on the ship and had to leave his belongings behind when he was notified "out of the blue, and without any prior consultation" about his instant dismissal, he said.

In his legal papers, seen by the BBC, he claimed private security staff, carrying handcuffs and wearing balaclavas, were hired to remove workers who refused to disembark ferries.

"I was devastated by the brutal summary dismissal after many years of loyal and diligent service," his claim states. "The manner of the dismissal was harassing."

In a statement to the BBC, P&O said: "No staff involved in the redundancies wore balaclavas nor were they directed to use handcuffs or force.

"Staff remained professional, sympathetic and calm in a challenging situation for everyone, trying to ensure the safety of all the people on board the ships. There was no harassment," it said.

John and his mum after winning a P&O cake competition

Mr Lansdown alleges the redundancy was a "sham" and unlawful because there was no fair selection process, no diminished need for his job, and P&O Ferries' parent company, DP World, is very profitable, the document adds.

Mr Lansdown's British nationality was also a significant influence on the decision to sack staff and replace them with non-British crew paid below the minimum wage of up to £5.50 per hour, it further claims.

P&O Ferries boss Peter Hebblethwaite previously admitted to MPs that a decision to sack 800 workers without notice or union consultation had broken the law but said he would make the decision again if he had to.

At the time, he said of his decision that no union would have accepted the plan and it was easier to compensate workers "in full" instead.

'Violating his dignity'

In his legal claim, Mr Lansdown accused the company of "violating his dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating environment".

He told the BBC: "At the end of the day, it was the essence of Brexit what happened to us. This could give a green light to other companies to do the same."

Mr Lansdown's lawyer, Lawrence Davies of Equal Justice solicitors, said: "This is the most important battle for British workers' rights post-Brexit; the battle to prevent British jobs being lost on British waters to cheap foreign labour."

He added: "It is a fight we must win."

P&O Ferries has previously said that all 800 staff made redundant would be offered £36.5m in total - with around 40 receiving more than £100,000 each.

The Insolvency Service has launched criminal and civil investigations into the controversial mass redundancies.

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