The chief government of P&O Ferries has been dubbed the “most hated man in Britain” over the firing of almost 800 employees.
At Holyrood, Labour MSP Monica Lennon additionally accused Peter Hebblethwaite of “company terrorism” and blasted: “How do you sleep at evening?”
P&O Ferries has been condemned for sacking a whole lot of seafarers by video message and changing them with cheaper company staff
The choice has triggered havoc with the important Cairnryan-Larne line, which has been suspended, and led to threats of a boycott.
Hebblethwaite additionally admitted to MPs final week the corporate had damaged the legislation by not consulting the unions forward of the plan.
In a tense proof session to Holyrood’s Web Zero, Vitality and Transport Committee, Hebblethwaite was grilled by MSPs over his firm’s actions.
SNP MSP Fiona Hyslop was the primary to problem him: “Do you will have any remorse? Do you will have any disgrace?”
He stated: “I do not suppose that is about me personally. I believe that is about saving an organisation, saving 1000s of jobs. I remorse the impression that this has had. Completely, I remorse the impression this has had on 800 seafarers and their households. However sadly it was a really tough however needed determination.
Lennon additionally went on the assault: “You fired 800 skilled staff with a median service of 20 years. You despatched in safety guards with balaclavas and handcuffs. It's an excessive act of company terrorism.
“When will you resign?”
Hebblethwaite replied: “I wish to be completely clear that there's a lot of press that's frankly inaccurate. So we did make use of a safety agency of pros to maintain our ships protected, however a lot, far more importantly, our individuals protected, at a really emotional time for them.”
He added: “The information of the day - no balaclavas, none of these issues that had been reported. There wasn't a single incident, not one, of anyone being damage, of something inappropriate taking place."
Lennon shot again: “I am attempting to consider you, however you will have confessed to being a legislation breaker, so it's arduous to consider something that comes out of your mouth.”
Hebblethwaite stated: “I've accepted accountability for failing to seek the advice of and we're compensating individuals in full for that. I've apologised to 800 seafarers and their households and I proceed to try this.”
Lennon stated: “It seems like you will have satisfied your self that you're a saviour, that you're saving staff reasonably than throwing them overboard.
“The reality is you're a failure of a chief government and most definitely proper now in a crowded subject essentially the most hated man in Britain.
“Your ethics are mendacity on the backside of the seabed. How do you sleep at evening?”
He stated: “It was a really tough determination. It was a call that we applied as truly the one choice that in our opinion we had. It was a call, as I reiterate, designed to avoid wasting 1000s of jobs.”
New company employees who aren't officers that can work on P&O’s vessels will obtain a median of £5.50 per hour.
Requested by SNP MSP Natalie Don, if he would work for the wages being paid to some employees, he stated: “I selected a specific profession and a specific manner via that and it has led to me sitting right here answering questions – completely appropriately positioned questions – a few very tough determination that I've needed to make.
“I didn’t select a path that led to me being a seafarer.”
Drawing the assembly to a detailed, Hyslop, stated: “In my 20-plus years as a member of the Scottish Parliament, I'm not positive I've come throughout a difficulty with an employer that has united – unilaterally proper throughout the chamber – such hostility.
“The people who we symbolize, our constituents, even those that aren't within the south of Scotland, or in Cairnryan, are completely disgusted and dismayed that an organization of your popularity and your shareholders’ popularity has handled individuals with such disrespect and lack of dignity at work.”
She added: “I now shut the general public a part of the assembly, I want everybody a restful Easter break, sadly, that won't be the case for the various P&O staff which have suffered by the hands of this chief government.”
In a letter to the committee forward of the session, Hebblethwaite admitted that 39 of the 786 sacked seafarers reside in Scotland.
Separate to the Holyrood session, the CEO insisted he won't reverse the sackings regardless of being given “one additional alternative” by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
He wrote to the CUK Cupboard minister claiming the request “ignores the scenario’s basic and factual realities”.
Re-employing the sacked staff on their earlier wages would “intentionally trigger the corporate’s collapse, ensuing within the irretrievable lack of an extra 2,200 jobs”, the letter acknowledged.
“I can not think about that you'd want to compel an employer to result in its personal downfall, affecting not a whole lot however hundreds of households.”
To enroll to the Day by day Document Politics publication, click on right here.