Controversial CEO of DP World owned P&O Ferries, Peter Hebblethwaite, is to leave the company.
Once called ‘Britain’s most hated boss’ he is leaving to spend more time with his family. He has run P&O Ferries since 2021.
He gained notoriety three years ago when he masterminded mass sackings, replacing P&O Ferries’ seafarers with agency workers, in a move he later said was illegal.
At the time P&O dismissed 800 staff without consultation and replaced them with cheaper, temporary foreign workers.
The move drew condemnation from unions and top government ministers, while a Scottish MP later branded him as ‘Britain’s most hated boss.’
Nautilus, the union which represents officers, said at the time that he had discarded its members “like dirt”, with the furore eventually prompting MPs to pass new laws to give seafarers extra protection.
Seafarers’ ratings union, RMT described this move as someone who had effectively left the scene of a crime.
RMT general secretary, Eddie Dempsey, said he was a “corporate pirate” who told MPs that he knew he was breaking the law when he unlawfully dismissed and replaced 786 UK seafarers, and that he would do so again.
“We’re looking forward to a Hebblethwaite-free ferry industry where mandatory seafarer employment conditions, agreed with trade unions, are enforced and this corporate hatchet man is dumped in the bin of history,” he said.
A DP World spokesman said: “P&O Ferries extends its gratitude to Peter Hebblethwaite for his contributions as chief executive over the past four years.
“During his tenure the company navigated the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, initiated a path towards financial stability, and introduced the world’s first large double-ended hybrid ferries on the Dover/Calais route, thereby enhancing sustainability.
“We extend our best wishes to him for his future endeavours,” the spokesperson said.
Hebblethwaite claimed that P&O had been left with no choice but to bring in agency workers after the UK Government had allowed similar practices at rival Irish Ferries, which operates on the same Dover/Calais route.
