I've not looked at the companies accounts tinyurl.com/yaevfxjl in any detail but I suspect the fixed costs do not vary that much whether the ships are sailing or not. The main cost they could control is the staff costs (around £130M). I suspect the management has been under pressure to make the business more viable.

The 2020 accounts do contain various warnings about the loss (which was £103M) and "The directors have taken account of the severe but plausible downsides and are confident that the Group will have sufficient funds, through funding from its ultimate controlling party, DP World Limited, to meet its liabilities as they fall due for that period."

In a letter, the CEO has said "This new crew model will reduce our crewing costs by 50% and enable us to better compete and be more responsive to our customers’ needs." and These changes that we’re talking about today are part of DP World’s wider plan to support P&O Ferries to deliver the best for customers across freight and tourism industries. DP World is helping us invest in our future with new ships that will provide a better service for everyone, totalling £250M. www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/po-chiefs-letter-over-mass-26495822

I assume this is genuine

£2 an hour

www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10627951/amp/Eastern-European-replacement-crew-aboard-P-O-Ferries-paid-just-2-hour.html

Definitely something else going on.

The 800 staff will cost about 20 million a year (an operative is on about 21k pa)

P&O ferries carry 10 million passengers per year so the staff costs are a very small proportion of the operating cost per passenger.

Maybe the labour bill could be cut in half by employing Phillipino staff, that would save 10 million, about the same as the redundancy/pay in lieu of notice.

So at least mid 2023 before the labour bill would start to reduce.

My guess is that the ships/routes would be more saleable with cheap crews and that P&O will be flogging them off soon.

In fairness, now that the detail is emerging, the government are to a certain extent powerless. At present, the labour contract is off shore and mostly outside UK control.

I marvel at the ones being dragged out by Labour and the RMT to do much shouting and blaming the Tories. In fact, those who have been sacked should rally around and attack the RMT for taking their dues under false pretences. The RMT must have known somewhere along the line that the labour contract was offshore, yet went ahead to collect money from the workers knowing that there was nothing they could ever do for them.

The government should definitely look at clawing back furlough money and reviewing contracts with DP around the free-port activities...

Actually it is likely that because the staff were working in the UK that the UK (not Jersey) employment laws are applicable.

That being the case, then at the very least P&O should be fined for not following the 90 day consultation rules.

Saying that, it would be cheaper to pay the fine than go through protracted consultation.

A bit like a tactical foul in football or rugby!

No amount of redundancy money compensates those who would have eventually fallen heir to these "protected" jobs. 800 hundred jobs have been lost to workers who were lied to when the whole country was told Brexit would protect jobs and give us back control.