Skip to main content
P&O scandal is a result of the weakness of British labour law
Professor KEITH EWING asks what is to be done over the appalling ease with which workers can be ‘fired and replaced’

GRANT SHAPPS’S nine-point plan in response to the P&O affair has been widely criticised as falling well short of what is required to deal not only with the ongoing dispute, but also with its legacy to ensure that this does not happen again. 

Yet despite the feigned surprise and faux outrage of the political classes, P&O is not a one-off problem, any more than were the other recent corporate scandals.  

It is a consequence of the systemic weaknesses of British labour law, which need to be addressed. So what needs to be done?

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A women's protest
Features / 5 September 2026
5 September 2026

Our priority must be to defend hard-won protections while linking equality law to trade union power and wider social transformation, says MARY DAVIS, on behalf of the Women’s Liberation Alliance

UNION RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS: St Mungo's workers outside the homeless charity's head quarters in Tower Hill, London, as they start a month long strike over pay, May 2023
Workers' Rights / 21 March 2026
21 March 2026

The unions are unhappy with the Employment Rights Act 2025 and with good reason. KEITH EWING and Lord JOHN HENDY KC take a close look at why the Bill promised more than it delivered

The fate of The Times newspaper was revealed at a press conference in Portman Hotel, London. (L-R) Harold Evans, Sunday Times Editor; New owner and Australian press magnate Rupert Murdoch and William Rees-Mogg, The Times Editor
Media / 24 January 2026
24 January 2026

Four decades on, the Wapping dispute stands as both a heroic act of resistance and a decisive moment in the long campaign to break trade union power. Lord JOHN HENDY KC looks back on the events of 1986

 06/02/23 of workers on the picket line outside Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton during a strike by nurses and ambulance staff
Voices of Scotland / 23 September 2025
23 September 2025

Employment lawyer ALICE BOWMAN warns ‘day one rights’ include an undefined ‘initial period’ and the zero-hours contract fixes create baffling fixed-term loopholes. If the Bill doesn’t work properly and deliver, Labour is doomed