Queen’s Speech: Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer to debate government agenda

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What else could the measures outlined in the Queen’s Speech mean for seafarers in the wake of the P&O no notice sacks?

The government says most sacked P&O workers accepted either redundancy terms or were rehired on less favorable agency contracts.

It says this bill is aimed at deterring other companies from repeating what P&O did, by closing gaps used by some ferry companies operating regularly in and out of UK ports.

The department for transport also says discussions with France, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Ireland and Denmark are continuing over the creation of “minimum wage corridors”. This was first announced by Transport Secretary Grant Shapes in March.

British Ports Association (BPA) chief executive Richard Ballantyne has told the BBC he thought the ports ban may be done by ports being asked to request details from ferry companies – possibly once a year.

If they weren’t paying the equivalent of national minimum wage, they’d be reported to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, who could then report to the Secretary of State, and he could require ports to prohibit entry.

The BPA’s view is that this would be doable, but they still aren’t pleased that ports are the ones being asked to police companies’ wage arrangements.

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