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A protestor wears a face mask of P&O Ferries Chief Executive Peter Hebblethwaite during a protest through Dover in Kent, after P&O Ferries sacked 800 workers without notice on March 17, April 19, 2022
P&O Ferries chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite announced he was quitting today, three years after he sacked 800 staff to replace them with cheaper agency workers.
Mr Hebblethwaite faced widespread calls to resign after admitting to MPs that the company broke the law by not consulting with trade unions.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said that he had “effectively left the scene of a crime,” given an ongoing civil investigation by the Insolvency Service.
RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said: “We’re looking forward to a Hebblethwaite-free ferry industry where mandatory seafarer employment conditions, agreed with trade unions, are enforced and this corporate hatchet man is dumped in the bin of history.”
A company spokesperson said that Mr Hebblethwaite had said he wanted to “dedicate more time to family matters” and thanked him “for his contributions as CEO over the past four years.”
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
