Now the Dubai company’s UK relations have been plunged into crisis after its P&O ferries business berthed all its ships and summarily fired 800 British-based sailors.
While DP World says P&O’s restructuring was necessary to sustain the business, politicians are aghast at the way staff were let go on a Zoom call without consultation to be replaced by cheaper agency staff. Some fear the company has imported Dubai’s approach to labour relations — unions in the emirate are banned and workers’ rights constrained.
“This is a complete own goal — it can’t impact their reputation positively and will generate huge amount of political attention,” said one UK official. “The business logic may be correct, but this is going to have wider ramifications for DP World as an investor and employer.”
However, the government faces a dilemma in how to respond. The company, which last week reported record full-year ebitda of $3.8bn, has been a huge investor in UK industry, pumping £2bn into the country with another £1.5bn earmarked for the coming years.
The state-controlled group runs the UK’s second-biggest shipping terminal in Southampton and its third-biggest in London, handling more than half the intercontinental container traffic that enters the country, and has expressed interest in new UK freeport contracts.
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