GOVERNMENT pledges to act against ferry operator P&O after it sacked 800 seafarers in Britain were “all bluster,” a seafarers’ delegate told TUC Northern conference on Saturday.

This month marks the second anniversary of the sackings and the seafarers’ replacement with overseas workers — paid less than £5 an hour and working 12-hour shifts with no time off for months in prison-like conditions.

Despite promises to plug the legal loophole in Britain which allowed P&O’s owner the Dubai-based DP World to sack and replace its mariners on March 17 2022, nothing has changed.