The UK will give ports new powers to stop ferries from docking if they don’t pay their crew the UK minimum wage.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps unveiled the plans following the unannounced layoff of 800 P&O Ferries employees earlier this month.
“This will send a clear message to the maritime industry: we will not allow anything like this to happen again,” he said.
He also said he would ask the bankruptcy service to consider disqualifying P&O’s chief executive.
Peter Hebblethwaite has so far refused to step down over the scandal, but Mr Shapps said he has written to the regulator expressing his “strong belief” that he was “unfit to run a UK company”.
P&O Ferries provoked union and public outrage when hundreds of seafarers were laid off without notice and replaced with agency workers paying less than minimum wage.
Mr Hebblethwaite then admitted the company had knowingly broken the law by not consulting with unions and instead planned to compensate workers.
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