P&O Ferries has defended its recruitment campaign as crewing providers Columbia Shipmanagement and Clyde Marine attracted union anger for working with the company.
The DP World-owned ropax player laid off nearly 800 seafarers earlier this month to bring in cheaper agency staff.
The 20,600-gt European Causeway (built 2000) was then detained over the weekend due to “failures on crew familiarisation, vessel documentation and crew training,” the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said.
Then on Monday, the MCA held the 2,000-passenger Pride of Kent (built 1992) in Dover over what the RMT union called multiple safety and operational breaches.
Columbia subsidiary CSM Baltics has been advertising for stewards to work on the fleet, saying no maritime experience is necessary.
The ship management giant said it does not comment on contractual matters.
A Facebook advert sought stewards for 12-hour days, with 12 hours of rest in French hotels.
The posts will be eight weeks on, eight weeks off. Some new seafarers are being paid £5.50 per hour, P&O has said.
“No seafarers’ documents are needed, just previous experience in hospitality institutions,” the advert read.
P&O Ferries said CSM Baltics also recruits for other shipping firms, and that it is not unusual to hire some crew members with no previous experience at sea. Full training will be provided.
A P&O Ferries spokesperson told The Guardian: “The safety of our passengers and crew is our foremost priority.”
RMT has serious concerns
Darren Procter, national secretary of the RMT union, said the agency advert raised serious concerns.
He added: “They are cutting corners. It’s not just about training, but having crews who have worked together and are experienced.”
A P&O Ferries spokesperson said any suggestion that safety was in any way compromised was “categorically false”.
Glasgow’s Clyde Marine Recruitment has also been reported to be providing seafarers for P&O Ferries.
Office action
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch organised a demonstration outside the head office on Monday.
He said: “We are making it clear that there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide for those who have been complicit in the P&O jobs massacre.”
But Ian Livingstone, Clyde Marine’s managing director, said in a statement that reports saying it had provided hundreds of crew paid below the minimum wage were incorrect.
“We do not recruit from India and all agency staff supplied by Clyde Marine Recruitment for P&O Ferries or other UK services are paid above the UK living wage,” he added.
Livingstone explained that several days before the 17 March redundancy announcement, P&O told Clyde it required 18 crew members for a specific vessel for maintenance and cleaning.
Another 23 seafarers were requested by a third-party crew manager, International Ferry Management, for a roro ferry management project, he added.
Clyde Marine has supplied crew and officers to P&O for more than 30 years.
Clyde not backing P&O Ferries
“We cannot condone the behaviour of P&O ferries and will continue to support seafarers looking for positions with our respective clients,” Livingstone said.
“We were as surprised as everyone else in the UK shipping business when the news broke that 600 crew and 200 officers were to lose their jobs with immediate effect. We fully understand the anger being felt by the crews, their families, and their supporters,” Livingstone said.
International Ferry Management was set up in Malta on 11 February and has been hiring replacement crews for P&O Ferries, the I newspaper has reported.
