The European Causeway ferry is detained after 800 of the firm’s staff were sacked without notice.
Image source, Getty Images
A P&O Ferries ship has been detained in Northern Ireland over safety concerns.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said the European Causeway boat had been held in Larne over multiple issues.
The MCA said there had been “failures on crew familiarisation, vessel documentation and crew training”.
Unions have raised concerns over a lack of experience of new crew, introduced after 800 of the firm’s staff were sacked eight days ago.
P&O Ferries made them redundant with no notice, replacing them with workers paid less than the minimum wage.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that the European Causeway was “unfit to sail”.
He wrote on social media: “I will not compromise the safety of these vessels and P&O will not be able to rush inexperienced crew through training.”
Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed Mr Shapps’ calls for the boss of P&O Ferries to resign. Peter Hebblethwaite admitted to MPs that he broke the law by not consulting workers ahead of the job cuts – but said he would do the same again if he had to.
Following my instruction to inspect all P&O vessels prior to entering back into service, the @MCA_Media has detained a ship for being unfit to sail. I will not compromise the safety of these vessels and P&O will not be able to rush inexperienced crew through training.
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps)
The vessel, operated by P&O Ferries, will remain under detention until all issues are resolved by the firm, the MCA spokesperson added.
P&O Ferries advised customers on Twitter that its services remained suspended.
Referring to its route from Larne, it said: “It is no longer possible for us to arrange travel via an alternative operator on this route.
“For essential travel, customers are advised to seek alternatives themselves.”
The general secretary of the RMT union, Mick Lynch, said that the seizing of the ferry suggests the firm are not “fit and proper to run a safe service after the jobs massacre”.
He called for the sacked crews to be reinstated “to get these crucial ferry routes back running safely”.
Maritime trade union Nautilus International said the importance of a well-trained crew “cannot be overstated”.
General secretary Mark Dickinson said this was “even more the case” for an operator like P&O Ferries, which carries up to 2,000 passengers a day and follows extremely tight schedules along one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.
“The consequences can be fatal when commercial pressure takes precedence over safety concerns in the ferry sector,” he said.
P&O Ferries did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
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