'The fire and rehire bill would have stopped P&O' | Barry Gardiner

Speaking to Matt Chorley, Labour MP Barry Gardiner said the private member's bill he brought to the House of Commons last year would have prevented P&O Ferries to fire its employees and rehire agency workers.

He said: " In October, my bill came before the House, and unfortunately, the government blocked it, the filibustered out. They just talked it out."

He added: "My bill actually put in place all the steps that a good employer would naturally take when they were having to restructure.

"There would have been a duty on the employer to disclose information to the workforce about why they needed to restructure."

Barry Gardiner said that the company could not use the bad figures it had during the pandemic to "fake manoeuvre in terms of cutting your workforces pay and getting rid of them entirely."

He said: "What we want here is a recognition from P&O management and also from DP World who are their owners, don't forget, and let's remember that they paid £270 million to their shareholders last year, and they're also, at the moment, whilst the pension fund that those workers, the P&O workers are part of, is liked by £146 million.

"So there's a hole in the pension fund, DP World have actually spent £147 million sponsoring the European Golf Tour.

"So this idea that 'Oh, it's it's crisis time financially, there's no money in our back pocket.' Let's get it right, here, okay?"

Listen to Barry Gardiner's full interview on Times Radio.

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