TUC Disabled Workers Condemn P&O Sackings

The TUC's Disabled Members' Committee has made this statement:

Accessible public transport is essential for disabled people to participate in society on an equal and independent basis. To be genuinely accessible, public transport must be adequately staffed by workers with decent standards of training, pay, conditions and security of employment.

TUC Disabled Workers’ Committee is therefore appalled by the action of P&O ferries in sacking eight hundred ferry workers, with no notice, with the intention of replacing them with low-paid, super-exploited, casual staff.

We demand that P&O reverse this action immediately and reinstate the workers. If P&O refuse, we call on the government to bring P&O back into public ownership and reinstate the sacked workers and to act in order to protect jobs, skills and strategically vital maritime supply routes. We offer our full solidarity to the workers and their trade unions, RMT and Nautilus. We reiterate our call for enhanced workers’ rights and free trade unions.