P&O: Agency seafarers quit after hearing about sacked staff

Gavin Hamilton was among the crew brought in to replace sacked P&O Ferry staff

Agency seafarers who were unwittingly hired to replace sacked P&O staff at Cairnryan turned and left when they realised what the job entailed.

Gavin Hamilton, from Paisley, and Mark Canet-Baldwin, from Lincolnshire, said they were given no information about the vessel they would be working on.

The two only realised it was a P&O vessel when their coach pulled up at the dock.

They were accompanied by a dozen security guards with handcuffs.

P&O Ferries staff are now staging protests after the firm sacked 800 employees across the UK without giving them any notice.

"It was news to us," said Gavin. "We were told the crew on board wouldn't lose their jobs, they were going to be offered contracts.

"We later discovered through the news that wasn't going to be the case and this wasn't exactly the friendly handover we were told it was going to be."

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Gavin told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme an agency offered him a job on Saturday for an "entirely new vessel". He had recently worked with P&O Ferries, but said he had requested work elsewhere for the time being.

The firm put him up in a hotel on Monday and on Thursday he and other workers were sent by coach to an undisclosed location.

"I didn't know I was being sent back to the exact same boat from three weeks before," he said. "I knew a lot of people on board that were going to be losing their jobs and that just didn't sit right with me.

"When we realised the RMT were involved and this was a big union dispute, we didn't want to be part of that. To us, boarding that ship was like crossing a picket line."

'We felt like traitors'

Mark, who is originally from Australia, was hired by Clyde Marine Recruitment to take over the running of P&O's European Highlander - which normally sails from Cairnryan, in Dumfries and Galloway, to Larne in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Similarly, he was given no information about the vessel or its location - just that it was a "good opportunity, with the possibility of future full-time work".

He was also on the coach which stopped to pick up a security detail of a dozen guards - who were dressed in black, equipped with handcuffs.

The crew were accompanied to Cairnryan dock by a security detail

After arriving at the dock, the crew were asked to wait for around six hours - again with no information. Because Gavin knew the P&O workers as former colleagues, they heard what was unfolding on board by text message.

"It was appalling, they were just devastated." said Mark. "They had literally come in to basically get off the ship and were informed there was no job, they were all fired and compensation would be talked about at another time. It was just horrible.

"There was just a general feeling of uneasiness on the bus," Mark said. "We felt like we were traitors to the cause or something. We knew what we were doing - we were taking those people's jobs.

"We were parked where the people on the ship could see us and we could see them. I just made the decision that I've got to look at this man in the mirror tomorrow. I took off the PPE gear and I got off the bus.

"I've got kids and I started thinking about them - in this day and age you've got to have morals and principles. My kids are proud of me and that's the main thing."

Economy Minister Gordon Lyons said it would be another week before P&O ships can operate from Larne Port.

Staff were told in a video call that Thursday was their "final day of employment", but some refused to leave their ships in protest and were removed by security guards.

P&O said it was a "tough" decision but it would "not be a viable business" without the changes.

The government said it would review its contracts with P&O Ferries, with unions calling it a "dark day" in the shipping industry.

Discussing the decision to lay-off 800 workers, P&O Ferries said: "We have made a £100m loss year-on-year, which has been covered by our parent DP World. This is not sustainable.

"Without these changes there is no future for P&O Ferries."