In a horrific mass firing incident, a British shipping company CEO sacked 800 staff over a Zoom call that lasted just 3 min! This is eerily reminiscent of Better.com CEO Vishal Garg firing 900 employees recently.
In yet another shocking Zoom call Mass Firing incident that is eerily similar to the one by Better.com CEO Vishal Garg recently that was condemned globally, yet another company CEO has resorted to the same creepy strategy to get rid of its hard-working employees. P&O Ferries, a British shipping company, sacked 800 of its staff with immediate effect over a creepy Zoom call on Thursday, March 17. The Zoom call lasted just 3 minutes! The incident has received large-scale criticism as politicians have called the move “disgusting” and “appalling”. Vishal Garg had fired 900 of his employees on a Zoom meeting in December 2021. It was a moment in infamy that will go down in history as sparking a major nasty and negative trend, as far as employees are concerned. Despite that incident sparking public outrage, now P&O have chosen to go down the same path. What has made things even worse is the fact that the employees were given zero notice period!
The incident is also particularly concerning as the ferry operator received £10 million from the UK government in furlough cash during the lockdowns of the pandemic to pay 1,100 employees. After telling the staff that it lost £200 million in the previous two years, now the company is facing the risk of reimbursing the entire furlough payout in light of mismanagement of funds.
“I am sorry to inform you that this means your employment is terminated with immediate effect on the grounds of redundancy,” Daily Mail quoted the P&O chief as saying on the Zoom call.
Karl Turner, MP for East Hull told British radio station LBC, “All of that money – that £10million for furlough in the pandemic – should be clawed back. Any money that the British taxpayer provided to that business should be taken back from them and the Government should be saying to the company to get round the table with the unions and negotiate some sort of deal”.
P&O Ferries Pulls a Better.com as it fires 800 staff over a Zoom Call
The shocking incident has once again reminded everyone of Better.com CEO Garg’s actions. After the mass firing of 900 employees on a Zoom call, the company and the CEO both faced mass criticism and public reproach. The company even lost a lot of business deals and was forced to let go of 50% of its employees due to losses incurred. Now, P&O Ferries is getting similar backlash, not only from businesses but also the British government.
“The way these workers were informed was completely unacceptable. Clearly the way that this was communicated to staff was not right and we have made that clear. Our sympathies are with these hard-working employees affected during this challenging time who have given years of service to P&O,” said the UK Prime Minister’s official spokesperson.
Calling the company’s action ‘disgusting’, the leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer told BBC Radio Humberside, “’This is a company that had a furlough during the Covid crisis. It is absolutely disgusting what they are trying to do. They mustn’t be allowed to get away with it.”