[Ruffy]

Many of the complaints about Brexit were related to the fact that it was being used to weaken UK employment rights compared to allegedly much stronger European requirements. So if not UK jurisdiction, do Cyprus flagged ships come under EU employment law? If so, in theory then it should have been harder to do what they appear to be trying to do. Sadly ironic?

IMHO, irrespective of relevant law, what I've heard reported is pretty dreadful behaviour when viewed from any reasonable moral and ethical perspective. This is the ugly face of capitalism in extremis - protect the company/shareholders at the expense of everything else.

If this is the owner's attempt to 'save' the company as claimed then perhaps the best solution is for as many customers and potential future employees as possible to completely stop using P&O so that it goes bankrupt asap and at least the company owner/directors feel loss too? Much short-term pain for employees of course but that's already there now and presumably there'll be a replacement organisation that appears (like a phoenix from the flames) if the travel demand is truly there.