P&O job losses: company suffers £7m loss after mass layoff | United Kingdom | News UK News

The company told its former British seafarers last Thursday that they were being replaced by cheaper agency workers. His news was delivered without notice via a pre-recorded video message.

A P&O spokesman said the company lost £1million a day for every day it was not operating in the UK.

Seven days after the mass layoffs, P&O can be estimated to have suffered a loss of at least £7million.

Another loss could soon be expected as the government reviews its contracts with the shipping company.

Last week, a company executive told workers: “The company cannot continue to operate like this.”

He said P&O had been around £100million year-on-year, adding: “These circumstances have led to a very difficult but necessary decision to restructure the workforce and operations of P&O Ferries in order to protect the future of the company.”

The decision, he insisted, “was only made after seriously considering all available options”.

But many refused to leave quietly, remaining on their ships on Thursday and protesting ever since.

The BBC’s Simon Jones reported in a post on Twitter today, Wednesday: ‘P&O crossings are canceled for the seventh day.

READ MORE: P&O fury as ‘ZERO French staff fired’ despite departure of all UK staff

In a statement late last week, the company said it was working to minimize disruption to customers, but admitted to suffering heavy losses.

A spokesperson said: “To try to minimize disruption to our customers, we contacted everyone we could reach.

“If passengers have any questions about traveling with us, we encourage them to contact our customer service team.

“Our aim is to have the first of our services running again within a day or two as we are losing £1million a day for every day they are not moving.”

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told P&O he was “deeply concerned” about the layoffs and would have questioned the legality of the move.

The government did not provide details of the value of its contracts with P&O, but analysis of the work suggested it had received £38.3million from taxpayer-funded contracts since December 2018.