P&O Ferries has come under renewed scrutiny after claims it has previously paid migrant workers as little as £1.82 per hour. According to Labour MP Karl Turner, the beleaguered ferry company’s foreign staff were paid from £1.82 an hour and some even had to live in tents.
The firebrand MP who has been dealing with P&O for years in his Hull East constituency claimed foreign workers were expected to put in 12-hour shifts in eight week blocks. The ferry firm whose on-the-spot mass sacking of 800 workers drew universal condemnation, has already found foreign replacement agency staff.
According to the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, migrants are earning way less than the £8.91 minimum wage. Billy Jones, branch secretary for Humber shipping for the RMT union, said hourly wages of between £2.60 and £2.80 were being paid to eastern Europeans to crew P&O's Pride of Hull ship.
