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Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
Business
Michael Mutch & David Laister

P&O Ferries set to make 1,100 redundancies in 'right-sizing' move during pandemic

More than 1,000 P&O Ferries employees will be made redundant.

The company has confirmed around 1,100 workers will lose their jobs as the company plans to make the business "viable and sustainable".

It is the same number of those furloughed initially by the business.

A spokesman for P&O Ferries said: “Since the beginning of the crisis, P&O Ferries has been working with its stakeholders to address the impact of the loss of the passenger business.

“It is now clear that right-sizing the business is necessary to create a viable and sustainable P&O Ferries to get through Covid-19.

“Regrettably, therefore, due to the reduced number of vessels we are operating and the ongoing downturn in business, we are beginning consultation proceedings with a proposal to make around 1,100 of our colleagues redundant.”

Last month,  the firm suspended cruise ships between Hull and Zeebrugge, furloughed a further 300 staff and asked for £250m funding in a series of "tough decisions" made to "keep the business strong."

P&O "laid up" its Pride of York and Pride of Bruges cruise ships which travelled daily between Hull and the Belgium port. It operates freight only on the route, with an "optimised service" between Hull and Rotterdam.

Dover to Calais has an optimised service for essential car travel, with Liverpool to Dublin and Cairnryan to Larne also optimised.

The firm said that further "tough" decisions needed to be made to "keep the business strong" throughout the pandemic.

It revealed it needed £250 million in funding to ensure it can "come through the current crisis", and called on the Government for £150 million of that funding.

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