BOSSES of ferry firm P&O have shared a £15.5 million pay bonanza after unlawfully sacking nearly 800 of its seafarers last year and replacing them with cheap agency workers from overseas.

The payout to directors and senior managers by P&O’s owners, Dubai-based DP World, was described as “an insult to common decency” by TUC general secretary Paul Nowak.

P&O sacked its workforce, who were mainly members of union RMT, in a carefully planned operation which had squads of security guards ready to board ferries in port, evict the mariners and bring agency workers on board to replace them.

Since then the Morning Star has reported that in Hull, P&O agency workers are living in tents after finishing 17-week stints at sea because they cannot afford to get home.

Mr Nowak said: “DP World has been allowed to get away scot-free despite behaving like corporate gangsters.

“These eye-watering payouts for bosses come off the back of P&O Ferries illegally sacking hundreds of dedicated staff.

“Ministers should have stripped DP World of all their lucrative public contracts and severed all commercial ties with the company.

“And they should have strengthened the law to make sure another P&O Ferries scandal is never allowed to happen again.

“But one year on — they have only made it easier for rogue employers to act with impunity.

“Instead of attacking the right to strike and threatening hard-won workers’ rights, ministers should get on with boosting worker protections.

“Without stronger protections for workers, there is nothing stopping another P&O Ferries scandal from happening again.”

Tory ministers publicly expressed outrage at the sackings and said action would be taken against P&O Ferries but have since done nothing.

P&O chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite notoriously told a Commons committee that he would do the same thing even though he knew the sackings were unlawful.

It is not known if he shared in the cash bonanza.

P&O is supposed to declare its accounts to companies house but they are three months overdue.

A spokesman for P&O Ferries said: “We are in the process of finalising our 2021 stat accounts with our auditors and are expecting to file them in the coming weeks.”