P&O Ferries boss got pay rise of at least 55% after firing almost 800 workers

The boss of P&O Ferries was paid £683,000 in the financial year after the cross-Channel operator outraged the public and parliament by dismissing almost 800 mainly British workers.

The windfall, revealed in much delayed 2023 accounts seen by the Guardian and ITV News that report more than £90m of annual losses, represents a pay rise of at least 55% for Peter Hebblethwaite, who was the company’s highest-paid director.

The top pay package in 2022 of £440,000 was earned by a former P&O Ferries board member.

Hebblethwaite told a parliamentary select committee last year that his salary was £325,000, and he had received a bonus in 2023 of £183,000. He was asked during the appearance if he was “a pirate” who appeared to be “robbing staff blind”.

“I reflected on accepting that payment, but ultimately I did decide to accept it,” he told MPs about the bonus at the time. “I do recognise it is not a decision that everybody would have made.”

The pay rise, which suggests Hebblethwaite’s total remuneration may have included elements not mentioned in his testimony to parliament, is likely to be viewed as controversial coming after P&O Ferries sacked 786 staff in 2022 and replaced them with low-paid agency workers who received considerably less than the UK minimum wage.

Hebblethwaite confirmed to MPs during last year’s session that the group’s lowest-paid seafarers had been receiving “fully consolidated hourly pay [of] about £4.87”. Two months before making that disclosure, the company had distanced itself from that rate, telling the Guardian and ITV News: “We do not recognise the [£4.87-an-hour] pay rates that you are referencing. No member of our crew on our Dover-Calais vessels earns less than £2,400 per month, equivalent to £5.20 per hour.”

Hebblethwaite’s pay package emerged in accounts that are expected to be published by Companies House in the coming days, but are already nine months late.

The figures – the first to be signed off by a tiny four-person auditing firm that replaced KPMG, the “big four” accountant that resigned in March – show that the company lost £91.4m before tax in 2023, a considerable improvement on the £249.4m losses in 2022.

Hebblethwaite has long argued that P&O Ferries would have gone bust had it not made the 2022 sackings and started paying the overseas agency workers much lower rates.

The accounts state that it transported 4.6 million passengers in 2023, a 45% reduction on the 8.4 million carried in 2018.

When Hebblethwaite addressed MPs last year, the UK minimum wage was £11.44 an hour, but the rates did not apply to maritime workers employed by an overseas agency who work on foreign-registered ships in international waters. P&O uses that model, so the pay onboard its vessels was legal.

Since then, the UK and France have introduced legislation intended to secure minimum-wage rates for seafarers, which is expected to increase P&O Ferries’ costs. The operator said it was “unequivocally committed to adhering to the legal requirements of applicable national and international laws”.

A spokesperson for P&O Ferries said: “These results show the progress we’re making in transforming the business. Losses are down and financial performance is improving. Our focus on high-quality experience is driving growth across both tourism and freight, with more people choosing to travel with us and satisfaction scores rising. We’re matching capacity to meet demand, and continue to invest in greener, more efficient vessels.

“Our accounts are prepared in accordance with relevant accounting standards and subject to independent audit in line with auditing standards.”