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Displaying items by tag: Seafarer sackings

Ferry operator, P&O is confident that it can avoid a fine for last year's sacking without notice of nearly 800 seafarers.

Among those sacked across their UK routes network, were seafarers working on the Irish Sea routes of Dublin-Liverpool and Larne-Cairnryan (see photo above). 

The annual report of P&O's Dubai based-owners, DP World, seen by the PA news agency, said its directors think an ongoing inquiry by the Insolvency Service will not result in any punishment.

Of the company's workforce, 786 were made redundant and without consultation on 17 March, 2022 (see, related story). This led to widespread criticism from UK and Irish politicians in addition from trade unions which saw member's protest at ports across both countries.

The mass sacking of seafarers saw them replaced by agency staff paid on wages less than the minimum wage.

A criminal investigation followed to inquire what happened, however this did not result in a prosecution.

Much from the Independent and the annual report.

As Afloat reported recently, in the UK, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) criticised a jobs cut proposal by P&O Ferries to shed a further 60 workers.

Published in Ferry

New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup

Ireland has a proud history in New York Yacht Club’s biennial Invitational Cup, with Irish participation from the very start and a podium result in 2019.

In 2009, two Irish Clubs,  Royal St. George in Dun Laoghaire and Royal Cork in Crosshaven, entered into New York's newest sailing competition that was reminiscent of Newport’s America’s Cup days when 19 yacht club teams from 14 nations descended on this “City by the Sea”.

The Rolex New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup is a competition between yacht clubs, with strict eligibility rules ensuring that each team is comprised exclusively of amateur sailors.

The competition, which was first run in 2009, has drawn entries from 49 clubs from 22 nations on all six inhabited continents.

The New York Yacht Club won the inaugural event in 2009, with the Royal Canadian Yacht Club winning in 2011 and 2013, England's Royal Thames Yacht Club winning in 2015 and Southern Yacht Club from New Orleans winning in 2017.

In 2019 the regatta was sailed for the first time in the New York Yacht Club’s fleet of IC37 yachts, and Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, from Australia, became the first Southern Hemisphere club to win the trophy. And it was in this edition that Anthony O’Leary’s Royal Cork team took the bronze medal.