A P&O Ferries vessel which went adrift in the Irish Sea has been cleared to sail again – amid reports the company is paying agency crews a basic rate of less than £4 an hour.
The European Causeway, which can carry 410 passengers, lost power for more than an hour while sailing from Cairnryan in southern Scotland to Larne, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday.
It was rescued by three lifeboats and a tugboat before it regained power shortly before 2.15pm, much to the relief of passengers on board who had endured blackouts.
After the ship got back to the port, a number of the new crew members reportedly asked maritime unions for advice about terminating their contracts.
Now, two days on, a spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed surveyors carried out a full inspection of the European Causeway and are satisfied that it is safe to sail again.
P&O Ferries has been prohibited from using the ship’s shaft generator for ‘provision of main power’.
The MCA spokeswoman said: ‘In the meantime, the European Causeway can rely on other generators for its electricity use.
‘There are no further inspections of P&O Ferries at the moment but we will reinspect when requested by P&O Ferries.’
The ferry operator has been widely criticised after replacing nearly 800 seafarers with cheaper agency workers on March 17. The move also sparked fears about the safety of its ships.
Meanwhile, there has been fury from unions after ITV News saw contracts, known as Seafarer’s Employment Agreements, showing agency workers on one of the company’s Dover ferries being paid a basic wage of $860 (£683) a month for a 40 hour working week – an hourly rate of pay of £3.94.
The European Causeway, which can carry 410 passengers, lost power for more than an hour while sailing from Cairnryan in southern Scotland to Larne, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday
Chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite – who is paid some £325,000 a year – told MPs the lowest hourly rate agency crews would earn would be £5.15, when he appeared before a joint select committee hearing last month
A route tracking map appeared to show it off course and bobbing around in the Irish Sea
The contract sets out additional rates for overtime, leave and a subsistence allowance, which P&O insists rises the rate of pay to £5.10 an hour, based on an 84-hour working week.
Chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite – who is paid some £325,000 a year – told MPs the lowest hourly rate agency crews would earn would be £5.15, when he appeared before a joint select committee hearing last month.
Frances O’Grady of the Trades Union Congress told ITV: ‘Make no mistake – these are sweatshop conditions.
‘P&O has deliberately sacked experienced, unionised staff so that it can replace them with agency workers on poverty pay.
‘These ‘union-busting’ tactics should worry all of us. If companies are allowed to get away with acting like corporate gangsters no worker is safe.’
A P&O spokesman said: ‘It is misleading to assert that any agency seafarer is paid £3.94 an hour.
‘Everyone working on the ship is contractually entitled to receive a basic salary plus guaranteed overtime, a leave allowance, a subsistence allowance and a bonus.
Taken together, the minimum rate of hourly pay is the equivalent of £5.58 an hour and nobody working on board our ships is paid less.’
‘It is important to note that the rates paid to our agency seafarers are above the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) minimum standards.
‘We fully welcome the Government’s commitment to increasing the minimum wage for all seafarers working in British waters and have called for a level playing field when it comes to pay and conditions on British ferry routes.’
It comes after the Rail, Maritime and Transport union attributed the European Causeway crisis to the vessel having ‘inexperienced crew’, as seafarers ‘familiar with the ship would have been able to keep it under power’.
He also claimed P&O Ferries was holding staff to the end of their contracts and refusing to pay their travel expenses if they leave early.
A spokesperson for the company said Tuesday’s incident had been a temporary issue and the European Causeway had travelled to Larne ‘under its own propulsion’.
It was yet another public relations disaster for the scandal-hit firm – just weeks after it sparked fury by firing 800 UK staff over zoom and replacing them with cheaper foreign crews.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced earlier this month that the Insolvency Service had started ‘formal criminal and civil investigations’ into the company, which he said he would be ‘following closely’ along with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
P&O Ferries operated European Highlander vessel in dock at the Port of Larne, Co Antrim, after it lost power off the Co Antrim coast
The probe came after P&O Ferries admitted to breaking the law in the manner in which it terminated staff on March 17 to hire cheaper agency workers, a move that has caused a major backlash from politicians and workers – compounded this week by claims it wanted to cut the wages of its new workers even further.
The European Causeway had already been detained last month ‘based on concerns over its safety’ and to ‘prevent them going to sea’, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said.
The Pride of Kent was also detained in Dover on March 28 after it failed inspections to see if it was ‘safe to go to sea without passengers or cargo’.
RMT boss Darren Procter said crew on board the European Causeway had claimed that engine parts were changed with the firm’s European Highlander ‘in order to pass its inspection’, the Telegraph reported.
A spokesperson for P&O Ferries said: ‘Following a temporary mechanical issue, the European Causeway is now continuing on its scheduled journey to the Port of Larne under its own propulsion, with local tugs on standby, where it will discharge its passengers and cargo as planned.
‘There are no reported injuries on board and all the relevant authorities have been informed. Once in dock a full independent investigation will be undertaken.’
The Marine Traffic website said the European Causeway’s automatic identification system status had been set to ‘not under command’.
This setting is reserved for use when a vessel is ‘unable to manoeuvre as required by these rules and is therefore unable to keep out of the way of another vessel’.
Meanwhile, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced yesterday that UK ports will be required to check whether ferry crews are paid at least the national minimum wage following the P&O Ferries sackings.
The Cabinet minister told MPs that the Government will introduce new legislation in response to the company’s decision to replace nearly 800 seafarers with cheaper agency workers.
The Marine Traffic website said the European Causeway’s (vessel pictured) automatic identification system status had been set to ‘not under command’, causing it to drift
P&O Ferries reportedly offered some of the agency workers, who replaced the near 800 staff fired last month, new contracts with even lower wages
Giving evidence to the Commons’ Transport Select Committee, Mr Shapps said the Government will include amendments to the 1964 Harbours Act in the Queen’s Speech on May 10.
He said ‘we won’t be expecting ports to physically enforce’ the new minimum wage requirement on ferries.
‘What we will require them to do is ask for confirmation and clarification – in the same way as they ask, for example, that the relevant insurance has been paid – that the relevant pay was being made.’
Mr Shapps said enforcement of minimum pay rules for ferry workers will be the responsibility of himself and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), but ports will ‘have a check that they will do to ensure (a ship is) within the law’.
He denied that P&O Ferries has ‘got away’ with sacking 786 crew members, stating there are ‘three things that P&O will need to do to get out of this mess’.
Chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite’s refusal to resign despite admitting to MPs that the company broke the law by not consulting with trade unions is ‘completely unsustainable’ and ‘he will have to go’, according to Mr Shapps.
The minister urged P&O Ferries to repay the £11 million of furlough money it claimed from the Government during the coronavirus pandemic.
And he added that the company ‘will have to pay the minimum wage’ when new legislation is introduced.
P&O Ferries resumed cross-Channel sailings on Tuesday night for the first time since the mass sackings on March 17.
The vessel Spirit Of Britain began operating between Dover and Calais for carrying freight customers.
Passenger services are expected to resume early next week.