[DavidSmith2]

One can certainly debate the need for redundancies, the business models which could survive in a global shipping market and whether treaties and legislation related to shipping needs tightening or not.

But what seems to me undeniable, is that the P&O management have treated their staff with utter contempt in the way the redundancies were announced, broken the law (by their own admission) and trashed the reputation and name of a long-standing British company. It may or may not be feasible to re-instate some or all of the sacked workers – we will see – but surely all the top management of P&O should either be sacked by the Board/Shareholders or, if they value their own personal reputations, they should resign, immediately, and forego any severance pay. That might go some way to restoring a level of confidence in the company and the wider industry.

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Frederic, Jacob, SimonS1, ASK1945, DerekVH

[esselle]

[postquote quote=1207491]

I am sure this was not a local decision, but rather a somewhat bungling and cack-handed attempt to implement a decision made elsewhere.

The tone deaf incompetence of the UK based CEO has, however, probably impacted on his future career prospects.

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Jacob, SimonS1

[DavidSmith2]

[quote quote=1207536]I am sure this was not a local decision, but rather a somewhat bungling and cack-handed attempt to implement a decision made elsewhere.[/quote]

I am inclined to think you are right Eselle, but the DP World Manager and the P&O CEO were both interrogated by the select committee last week and both were adamant that the decision was taken solely by P&O management. So either we are wrong in our assessment or we can add ‘lying to a select committee’ to the charge sheet, for both P&O and DP World.

[esselle]

[postquote quote=1207564]

I guess it depends where up the DP World chain the edict was given………

[DavidSmith2]

well the person interviewed by the Committee was Jesper Kristensen, Group COO, Maritime Services, DP World. He flatly denied that DP World were involved in the decision at all. He certainly came over (to me) as someone I would not want to meet in a dark alleyway!

[Author]

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