The new agency staff who will be manning P&O Ferries' ships If you adored this article and you would like to acquire more info with regards to Friday generously visit our site. are an Eastern European crew who have been offered '£2.60-an-hour' wages in a move union bosses have slammed as being a 21st century recreation of 'slave ships'. 

20 members of the replacement crew who were drafted in following the sacking scandal were pictured being shown around a ship docked in Hull on Friday, where eyewitnesses said they were taught about pieces of equipment onboard. 

More than 200 miles away, the groups donned orange overalls and were escorted around by a skeleton crew of P&O Ferries staff aboard the Pride of Kent. The new workers had no contact with those stationed on shore and the gang plank gate remained locked. 

This evening, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps took aim at P&O Ferries in a scathing letter while Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng slammed the firm for axing staff after taking 'millions of pounds in furlough payments'. 

Mr Shapps said the company had only let a 'very small group' of officials know about the decision on Wednesday evening, meaning it was 'far too late' for the Government to intervene.

Mr Kwarteng said the way staff were treated was 'appalling' and that P&O Ferries had 'lost the trust of the public' and given the business a 'bad name'.

It comes after MailOnline today revealed that 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 by a Swiss shipping boss whose name was mentioned in the 2017 Paradise Papers leak. 

58-year-old Antonio Ciriale, from the Ponte Capriasca region in Switzerland according to e marketing companies House, was named in the documents, alongside at least two Maltese addresses which are said to house companies he is linked to.

Billy Jones, branch secretary for Humber Shipping for the RMT, said the defiant captain of the Pride of Hull assured him that the ship would not be leaving its Yorkshire port as the new crew of cheaper agency workers 'still have no right to sail the ship' under maritime law, the Yorkshire Post reports.

He explained: 'They (the eastern Europeans) still have no right to sail the ship unless they are cleared by the MCA (Maritime and Coastguard Agency). There's still a P&O crew on board, a skeleton crew to make sure they don't take the ship away.' 

Mr Jonen said the mass sackings could spell the 'end of the British maritime industry', and slammed the firm for turning their vessels into 'modern slave ships' as new crew are rumored to be paid as little as £2.60 an hour.  

Other shocked former P&O staff alleged their replacements were being put up in their cabins that remain furnished with their personal belongings. 

One 59-year-old man who worked with the company for 23 years described the mass sackings as 'money grabbing and a total betrayal'.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he told MailOnline that cheaper agency workers, understood to be from Eastern Europe, were being brought in on wages of £2 to £3 per hour to replace British sailors whose hourly rates can eclipse £28.

Employers could use imported labour to dodge national insurance and pension obligations, making it impossible for British seafarers to compete for jobs, he added. 

Safety fears had been raised on Friday 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.'  

A new video also showed the brutal and undignified way DP World treated sacked P&O staff yesterday, where security told the crew they had 'two hours to pack up' and get off the ferry just minutes after being sacked on Zoom.

The hired heavy in a high-viz told the group of shocked staff: 'I think two hours would be a reasonable time for you to pack your stuff up and be ready to leave'. The workers replied in chorus: 'We need to talk to the union', to which the security guard, backed by colleagues, said bluntly: 'That's fine but you've got two hours'.

The sacked workers joined more than 150 people at a demonstration in the public car park on the King George Dock, followed by a half mile march to P & O Ferries' Hull headquarters.

But 'Tory hating' union members turned on Dover's Conservative MP Natalie Elphicke today when she came out to support them over P&O Ferries' 'jobs massacre' of 800 crew as it was revealed the Government knew about the plan the day before.

Mrs Elphicke even held a 'save Britain's ferries' banner at the event with Labour's hard-left former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and amid calls for the Dubai-owned business to hand back their £10million furlough cash, she said: 'We supported them with furlough and they should be backing Britain and backing Dover'.

But when she began speaking on TV about the sackings being 'devastating' for the Kent town, union activists started screaming: 'We hate Tories, we are the Tory haters', 'shame on you', 'you're on their side' and 'you voted for fire and rehire', forcing her to abandon her interview. 

One protester confronted her saying: 'Tory anti-union laws allow bosses to get away with this'. The Conservative MP replied: 'Nonsense, it's bad business behaviour' before she walked off as others yelled in her face.

The picket then marched on the docks, where police are parked at the entrance to the freight terminal and three P&O ferries - Pride Of Canterbury, Pride of Kent and Spirit of Britain - all remain docked. There appeared to be agency staff already working on the ships with security guarding the gangplanks. 

There were also protests in Hull, attended by Ed Miliband, as well as in Liverpool and Belfast, where police guarded the ports as union members called for ministers to 'sink P&O' by nationalising it. 

As P&O Ferries' failed to set a date to restart services and faces a boycott from Britons irate over the sacking scandal, it also emerged today:


Devastated workers described dedicating their working lives to the company only to be sacked by video and thrown off their ships with their belongings in bin bags; 

P&O claimed £10million in furlough cash during the pandemic - and tried and failed to get a £150million Government bailout. There are calls for the Dubai-owned business to hand any taxpayers' money back;

Downing Street has warned P&O Ferries that there could be 'ramifications' over its decision to sack some 800 seafarers. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will consider the removal of public contracts; 

Employment lawyers have said the company faces 'a hell of a lot of unfair dismissal claims' and the company's directors could also end up in the dock and face criminal prosecutions for failure to follow redundancy consultation rules;

P&O Ferries handles 15% of UK freight and a third into Dover from France. Experts predict that there will be serious supply chain problems for fresh food, booze and engineering parts if the ships don't start moving again soon;








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The new agency staff who will be manning P&O Ferries' ships are an 'Eastern European' crew who have been offered '£2.60-an-hour' wages in a move union bosses have slammed as being a 21st century recreation of 'slave ships'. Pictured: Workers are seen aboard the Spirit of Britain in Dover, Kent





Members of the replacement crew who were drafted in following the sacking scandal were pictured being shown around The Pride of Kent on Friday, where eyewitnesses said they were taught about pieces of equipment onboard









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MailOnline can today reveal that 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 (right) by a Swiss shipping boss Antonio Ciriale (left) whose name appears in the 2017 Paradise Papers leak









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The sacked workers joined more than 150 people at a demonstration in the public car park on the King George Dock, followed by a half mile march to P & O Ferries' Hull headquarters





Local MP Natalie Elphicke clashes with protesters gathered in support of sacked P&O Ferry workers at Dover in Kent





Mrs Elphicke was blamed by the union members and crew she had turned up to support













Backed by a team of hired heavies, this security guard told P&O staff they had 'two hours' to clear off the ship after they were sacked by Zoom yesterday









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The protest left the RMT Union HQ and headed for the port where the P&O Ferries' ships are moored and not moving





Lorry congestion at the port in Dover today. There has been uproar and condemnation from UK government ministers and trade unions following the sacking of hundreds of British P&O Ferries staff









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William Hague, DP World chief executive Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem (centre) and Prince William at Expo2020 in Dubai on February 10. DP has given William's Earthshot Prize £1m











Security guards wearing 'balaclavas and equipped with handcuffs' are pictured boarding P&O Ferries European Causeway ferry at the port of Larne as they bid to forcibly remove staff from the vessel on Thursday morning









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