THE mass sackings of 800 workers by P&O Ferries is rightly to be condemned, but we should not believe that the action taken by the company is unprecedented or unique, it is not.

Employment tribunals see a steady stream of similar cases, failure to consult is by any definition “normal.” 

So many employers ignore the requirement to consult and are prepared to pay for the privilege, accepting that they should have consulted their workers and simply paying out to compensate each worker for the consultation period that they so blatantly ignored.

The penalties for ignoring the requirement to consult are often for the employer to simply pay the employee a sum to cover the consultation period. 

An employer will have to pay wages throughout the consultation period anyway, so why bother to play by the rules? 

In fact, an employer will readily pay extra over and above to the employee just to prevent the inconvenience of an employment tribunal. 

What has made the headlines this time is the sheer scale of the actions taken by P&O Ferries, no more.

No investigation launched by any government body into the behaviour of P&O Ferries will likely result in any positive change for workers. 

Boris Johnson and his “Build Back Better” campaign, promises to release employers from burdensome regulation. Changing any regulation that supports employment rights and collective bargaining will be quietly killed as soon as it is convenient to do so.

What appears to have gone relatively unnoticed is the use of private security contractors, Interforce, former military personnel and police officers who have been contracted by P&O Ferries to act as the employer’s “muscle” against their own employees.

What is more, the “security” personnel were legally able to enter these workplaces, and to restrain and handcuff employees if necessary. Let me say that again, the employer’s security personnel were able to handcuff employees if required.

Not only was the plan developed to sack these 800 loyal workers secretly concocted but involved the planned use of private security staff to put employees in chains!

What kind of society would blindly accept this as “normal”? Former military personnel ready to restrain and handcuff workers who have been illegally sacked. Where is the outrage?

Interforce has made a press statement denying claims that balaclavas and handcuffs were used, but the email sent out to staff clearly shows that they were instructed to bring their handcuffs with them. 

The intention was to use them if these security personnel felt the need to do so. 

What can be right about any worker who chooses to exercise their right to object to being unfairly sacked, and for their employer to hire former military personnel to restrain and handcuff them for doing so?

Where was the government’s outrage regarding this act, its indignation at an employer’s self-appointed right to restrain employees if it deems it necessary?

This government is not content with burning employment rights and culling collective bargaining, it is helping to normalise the shackling of the workers themselves.

This article first appeared at www.tradeunionfreedom.co.uk.

Andy Green is the Unite convener at Tilbury Docks, the Unite executive council member for Docks & Waterways and secretary of the Campaign for Trade Union Freedom.