Demands for action against P&O after company resumes Liverpool-Dublin service
More protests are expected after P&O resumed ferry crossings between Liverpool and Dublin.
It comes just days after the company fired 800 staff and brought in agency workers. It's thought that 60 people who work on the Liverpool - Dublin route have lost their jobs.
The RMT claims P&O ships on the Liverpool-Dublin route have now been crewed with Filipino ratings on contracts which pay below the minimum wage.
Shipping companies which are registered in other countries and operating routes from UK ports to Europe can pay below the minimum wage because they are exempt from legislation.
The company says the action, which involves staff across the UK, has been necessary to ensure its future survival.
But the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said there should be a widespread public and commercial boycott of the ferry giant until the jobs are reinstated.
The maritime union Nautilus has urged the Transport Secretary to revoke P&O Ferries' licences in British waters as the operator resumed services in Liverpool.
Bill Esterson, the Labour MP who was among those protesting at the Port of Liverpool on Friday, said: “For loyal workers with years of experience to be summarily sacked with no warning at all is an outrage. It is draconian and Dickensian from P&O’s parent company DP World.
“The Government must intervene. Warm words are not enough. P&O must reinstate every single sacked seafarer.”
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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had criticised P&O's handling of the sacking of the seafarers and replacing them with cheaper agency staff, stating he had written to P&O chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite questioning the legality of the move.
Mr Shapps has also ordered a review of all the Government contracts with both P&O Ferries and its parent company, DP World, and stated that vessels will be subject to inspections and new crews would be checked before being allowed to set sail.