TORY ministers must issue an immediate injunction to prevent P&O ships sailing, RMT demanded today after the firm’s boss admitted he had broken the law when sacking nearly 800 workers without notice.

Addressing a joint committee of MPs, Peter Hebblethwaite said there was “absolutely no doubt” that the company was required by British employment legislation to inform unions before firing 786 staff last week. 

However, he said the firm “chose not to consult” the workers as no union “could possibly accept” the move — an answer branded as “farcical” by Labour MP Andy McDonald amid astonished laughter from his colleagues.

The company’s director, who earns £325,000 a year excluding bonuses, reiterated his apology to those affected but stressed he would take the same decision again after P&O suffered a series of pandemic-related losses.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch urged ministers to intervene and reinstate the sacked workers.

“This should include the government seizing control of the ships if necessary,” as well as the “immediate disqualification of Mr Hebblethwaite,” he added.

P&O deserves “pariah status,” charged TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, who said ministers should take over the company’s services and run them as an operator of last resort after similar moves on the railways during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Under no circumstances can P&O be allowed to get away with its scandalous treatment of staff,” she stressed. 

Its owner, Dubai-based DP World, must “lose all its government shipping and freeport contracts with immediate effect until workers are reinstated,” Ms O’Grady said.

Tory Transport Secretary Grant Shapps claimed the government would introduce a “package of measures” to stop similar moves by bosses in future, but Labour slammed the “shambolic response of ministers which has left loyal British workers high and dry.”

Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: “P&O Ferries brazenly admit they tore up the law to sack loyal British workers but the government has still done absolutely nothing to act.”

Mr Shapps has “questions to answer,” the Sheffield Heeley MP added, after Mr Hebblethwaite claimed the Secretary of State had been told of the firm’s plans during a meeting in Dubai ahead of last Thursday’s unprecedented move.

Unions warned that the safety of P&O ships could also now be compromised amid reports inexperienced agency staff from overseas will crew the firm’s vessels, which carry passengers and about 15 per cent of Britain’s total freight cargo.