Peter Hebblethwaite admits P&O should have consulted unions before sacking 800 ferry workers.
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P&O Ferries boss Peter Hebblethwaite has admitted to MPs that a decision to sack 800 workers last week without consulting the unions broke the law.
He said there was “absolutely no doubt” that under UK employment law the firm was required to consult unions before making the mass cuts.
“We chose not to consult and we are, and will, compensate everybody in full for that,” he said.
He said no union would have accepted P&O’s job slashing plans.
P&O Ferries sparked outrage last week when it sacked 800 workers with no warning using a video message.
Under UK employment law, it needed to consult unions before firing the seafarers.
Separately, it had a legal obligation to notify the governments in the countries where its ferries are registered that it was going to make the redundancies.
The firm informed authorities in Barbados, Bermuda and Cyprus on 17 March – but MPs on the Transport Select Committee said it should have done this sooner.
