NEW agency crew hired by P&O Ferries could reportedly be paid as little as £2.60 an hour to replace old staff.
Workers from Eastern Europe have allegedly been drafted in to plug a £100million company hole after P&O sensationally axed 800 workers to make room for cheaper staff on Thursday.
One ex-employee blasted the move a “money-grabbing betrayal” while union bosses compared the new pay packets to modern slave labour.
Former staff members have also alleged their replacements are already being put up in their cabins – still filled with their personal belongings.
Yorkshire Live has reported new crew are rumoured to be paid as little as £2.60 an hour.
And Billy Jones, branch secretary for Humber Shipping for the RMT, said P&O had turned its vessels into “modern slave ships”.
One 59-year-old man who worked with the company for 23 years described the mass sackings as “money grabbing and a total betrayal”.
The unnamed employee told MailOnline cheap staff were being brought in on wages of £2 to £3 per hour to replace British sailors whose hourly rates can be as high as £28.
He added employers could use imported labour to dodge national insurance and pension obligations, making it impossible for British seafarers to compete for jobs.
According to the publication, International Ferry Management, a Maltese firm that will be responsible for new crews on P&O Ferries’ ships, was set up just four weeks ago.
And safety fears were raised today about new crews being “unfamiliar” with both vessels and the routes they would be taking.
Mark Dickinson, general secretary of trade union Nautilus International, described an “intensely worrying situation”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There are serious safety concerns, which is why the company cannot reintroduce services with the lower-paid agency crew that they’ve recruited via this company called International Ferry Management of Malta.”
P&O employees were ambushed yesterday morning via Zoom and reportedly given just “five minutes to get their stuff and get off the ship”.
Security teams in balaclavas were then drafted in to remove P&O staff — some given just five minutes to gather gear from quarters.
Defiant captain Eugene Favier refused to leave his Pride of Hull ferry in protest and barred cops and security from boarding.
Other workers blocked roads near Hull and Dover as queues of lorries built up.
Passengers were marched off ships, or stopped from boarding, leaving thousands stranded.
No.10 said it was given no warning, and the PM’s spokesman said the cuts were “wholly unacceptable”.
