A decision to allow the owner of P&O Ferries, DP World, to be involved in a major new infrastructure project has sparked outrage, after the company fired 800 workers without notice last year.
DP World has been approved to co-run the Thames Freeport in Essex, as part of Rishi Sunak’s freeports plan.
The UK government has said the new freeport would ‘help to grow the economy’.
The Trades Union Congress said it was an ‘appalling decision’, enabling other employers ‘to act with impunity’.
P&O Ferries got rid of hundreds of employees in March 2022 and replaced them with foreign agency workers which are paid less than the minimum wage.
The decision has led to calls for P&O’s CEO Peter Hebblethwaite to resign.
