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.

Jessica Robinson of the maritime union RMT told the conference in Newcastle that in July, the government introduced a seafarers’ charter in response to the sackings.

“It is purely self-policing — and we cannot trust the employers,” she said.

The conference voted unanimously to campaign ahead of the upcoming general election for mandatory fair pay agreements, employment standards and training for ferry workers.