P&O boss admits he couldn't live on £4.87 an hour

The boss of P&O Ferries has admitted that he couldn't live on the £4.87 an hour some of its crew are paid, he told MPs.

Peter Hebblethwaite also revealed that he earned more than £500,000 last year, including a bonus.

At a hearing over workers' rights and protection, Mr Hebblethwaite faced more questions over P&O's decision to axe hundreds of workers without notice and replace them with agency staff.

He said he was deeply sorry for the redundancies and claimed "we would not make that decision again".

In 2022, P&O Ferries, known for its Dover to Calais route, gained notoriety when it made 786 staff redundant before replacing them with people on lower wages.

The move led to a public outcry and prompted the government to create legislation aimed at preventing similar mass sacking happening in the future.

On Tuesday, Mr Hebblethwaite told MPs that the agency workers P&O now uses to crew its boats can be paid as little as £4.87 a hour- that includes overtime and bonuses. On average, P&O workers make £5.20 an hour.

The chief executive said crew is paid in excess of the minimum basic wage set out by international law.

“We are paying considerably ahead of the international standard," he said.

But Liam Byrne, chair of the Business and Trade Committee, accused Mr Hebblethwaite of "robbing your staff blind".

The chief executive was also asked whether he felt like "a modern day pirate" by the committee chair.

In the UK, the minimum wage rose to £11.44 an hour in April but many crew members who work for P&O Ferries are recruited by an external agency from overseas, including from India and the Philippines.

Mr Hebblethwaite said: "We are paying considerably ahead of the international minimum standard.

"We believe that it is right that as an international business operating in international waters, we should be governed by international law."

"In British waters when the law changes we’ll pay national minimum wage. We already pay national minimum wage on domestic routes," Mr Hebblethwaite added.

“It’s a minimum wage for UK workers, we recruit from an international field and operate in international waters.”

Labour MP Andy McDonald responded saying he understood the point he P&O Ferries boss was making, but added: "It just appears to this committee that you’re getting away with what amounts to modern day slavery.”

Mr Hebblethwaite said that he “categorically” resisted the claim.

The P&O boss was asked if he could live on £4.87 an hour. "No, I couldn't," he replied.

He also admitted that last year he was paid a salary of £325,000 and received a bonus of £183,000 last April.

Mr Hebblethwaite said he was "deeply sorry" for the impact the sackings had on the 786 seafarers and their families.

“Let me be absolutely clear, we would not make that decision again," he told MPs.

But he also said the decision had been necessary to save the company.

Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said Mr Hebblethwaite "admitted that he couldn’t live on this poverty rate of pay – but he expects his workers to survive on it".

He added: “It beggars belief that P&O Ferries has faced no sanctions for its misdeeds and that its parent company DP World has continued to be awarded government contracts."

The government revealed plans in 2022 to reform maritime law to prevent future mass sackings without notice, saying it would close "loophole in the law" it believed had been "exploited" by P&O Ferries.

It now expects new legislation to address the issue to come into effect this summer. France now has a similar law coming into force in three months.

If the new UK legislation is put in place, ferry operators will have to pay the £11.44 an hour minimum wage to staff.