The boss of P&O Ferries who earned £508,000 including a bonus of £183,000 in 2023 has admitted he pays his workers as little as £4.87 per hours.
Almost two years later since the scandal first broke out Peter Hebblethwaite repeatedly insisted to MPs on the Business and Trade Committee that workers are not being exploited.
Hebblethwaite has refused calls for an independent investigation and previously P&) Ferries were branded “pirates” for laying staff off without any notice.
The chief executive of P&O Ferries admitted he would not be able to live on £4.87 per hour.
Hebblethwaite said, “We are paying considerably ahead of the international minimum standard.
“We believe that it is right that as an international business operating in international waters, we should be governed by international law.”
He added, “All we want is a level playing field with our competitors.”
The Guardian and ITV News did an analysis of payslips which suggests that P&) agency workers are earning as little as £4.87 per hour.
Committee chair Liam Byrne asked Hebblethwaite, “Are you basically a modern day pirate?” he did not make any comment to the accusation.
Byrne then asked, “Do you think you could live on £4.87 an hour?”
Hebblethwaite replied, “No, I couldn’t.”
Labour MP Charlotte Nichols has repeatedly asked the P&O Ferries chief to agree to an independent probe.
Hebblethwaite said, “You can take from the retention levels that the crewing agent experiences and their ability to recruit the highest standard of international seafarers is hard evidence that people who could work anywhere in the world on any ships have chosen to work for P&O.”
Hebblethwaite was accused of showing “zero remorse” for laying off the workers without any notice, the Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak said.
He added: “It beggars belief that P&O Ferries has faced no sanctions for its misdeeds and that its parent company DP World has continued to be awarded government contracts.”
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