RMT SLAMS DP WORLD CHIEF FOR PRAISING P&O SACKINGS AS AN 'AMAZING' JOB

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: june 2022 :: RMTnews 19 R MT is balloting all members at Orsted Wilney Operations for industrial action over the victimisation of a member simply for raising questions over serious health and safety infringements. The union is appalled at the actions of Orsted and its treatment of a member for raising legitimate Health and Safety concerns. The persecution he has faced has included withholding pay for nine months, ageist personal ridicule and refusal to incorporate reasonable adjustments after his treatment which has led to a serious detriment in his mental health. The member reported Orsted to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and a full investigation was initiated. However Orsted attempted to dismiss the allegations and the HSE forced Orsted to pay for the cost of the investigation and ordered that Orsted publish the results of the investigation to all employees concerned. Yet Orsted still refuses to publish the findings as per the H&S Executives’ request. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that the company’s cavalier approach to health and safety was shocking. “It is the right of all workers to work in a safe environment. They should not live in fear of the employer for attempting to raise concerns to protect fellow workers. “We are sending a clear message to Orsted that enough is enough and their appalling practices will not be tolerated,” he said. R MT has called for P&O Ferries’ owner to be taken to task for describing the sacking of 800 workers illegally fired and replaced with cheaper agency staff in March as an ‘amazing’ job. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that the government, which has already denounced P&O for its actions, should act against such companies that trash the law and maritime safety standards with impunity in order to make a quick buck while their owners cheer them on. “This cannot be tolerated. Employers like P&O, hell-bent on attacking workers’ rights to profit their owners in Dubai, must face effective legal consequences at an international level,” he said. Dubai-based sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chief executive of DP World which has owned the British shipping company since 2019, said that it was too late to reverse the mass- sacking decision because it was ‘in the past’. He also rounded on the Prime Minister Boris Johnson who had called for the chief executive of P&O Ferries, Peter Hebblethwaite, to resign after he ‘brazenly’ admitted breaking employment law when crew were fired over Zoom without notice. “The decision was their decision... we did not interfere and tell them what to do. Peter has done an amazing job because he managed to save the company instead of 3,000 people out of a job,” said Mr Sulayem. The unionised workforce at P&O were brutally replaced by a ‘third party crew provider’ which turned out to be low paid foreign agency workers in an outrageous example of social dumping designed to drive down wages and increases profits. The government has decided to terminate the Border Force’s contract with P&O but the union described it as an overdue but welcome step. "Despite the government’s anger and condemnation of the attack on my members’ jobs, P&O continues to pay inexperienced crew well below the minimum wage on contracts that demand dangerously long hours. "The real solution to the crisis at P&O is for the government to impound P&O’s ships, take these critical maritime services out of the control of DP World and operate them in the public sector. "Only then can we guarantee safe ferry services that employ UK resident seafarers on conditions that reflect the UK economy and not shipowners’ insatiable demand for profit,” said Mick Lynch. RMT SLAMS DP WORLD CHIEF FOR PRAISING P&O SACKINGS AS AN ‘AMAZING’ JOB BALLOT AT WIND FARM COMPANY ORSTED OVER VICTIMISATION DP World CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem attends a session at the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland Support Vessels for the offshore wind farms in the Irish Sea off Barrow in Furness.