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Enterprise

P&O Ferries offering 800 sacked staff £36.5m compensation

The company's CEO is expected to be questioned by MPs tomorrow

Three P&O ferries, Spirit of Britain, Pride of Canterbury and Pride of Kent moor up in the cruise terminal at the Port of Dover in Kent as the company has suspended sailings(Image: PA)

Compensation of £36.5m is being offered by P&O Ferries to the 800 staff it sacked last week, with 40 employees in line for packets of more than £100,000.

In a statement, the company said the pay-outs would be linked to the period of service, and in some cases exceed £170,000.

A spokesman for Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng confirmed the government had received a letter from the firm in response to his questions about the shock move by the 5pm deadline on Tuesday, March 22.

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The total value of the settlement is £36,541,648, P&O said. Employees are also being given support to find a new job at sea or onshore, while the company added that 575 of the 786 seafarers affected are in discussions to progress with the severance offers, the PA news agency reported.

A spokesperson for P&O Ferries said: "This has been an incredibly tough decision for the business: to make this choice or face taking the company into administration. This would have meant the loss of 3,000 jobs and the end of P&O Ferries.

"In making this hard choice, we have guaranteed the future viability of P&O Ferries, avoided large-scale and lengthy disruption, and secured Britain's trading capacity."

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P&O said it is paying (subject to settlement agreement) 2.5 weeks' uncapped salary for each year employed rather than the statutory 1 or 1.5 weeks and up to 13 weeks' salary in lieu of notice.