P&O Ferries, one of the UK’s leading ferry companies, has fired 800 employees with immediate effect through a three-minute pre-recorded video which was leaked on the internet. This brought chaos to some of the largest British ports and prompted outrage from union officials and workers who refused to leave their ships.

The 24-second clip of the video was released by the BBC South East. In the footage a man whose identity is unknown was heard saying that the company has decided to be primarily crewed by a third party crew provider.

“Therefore, I am sorry to inform you that this means your employment is terminated with immediate effect on the grounds of redundancy. Your final day of employment is today,” he said in the video.

This news came after a series of announcements by the company over the cancellation of ferries crossing Dover which then extended to all ferry crossings of P&O being cancelled for the next few days.

According to the company, the mass layoffs come as a necessary measure to ensure its survival. "In its current state, P&O Ferries is not a viable business. We have made a £100 million ($130 million) loss year-on-year, which has been covered by our parent DP World," a spokesperson told CNN Business.

He further said that the company needed to make swift and significant changes now.

British national union RMT and the Nautilus union are demanding action across the ports of Dover, Liverpool, Hull and Larne urging P&O employees to not leave their ships. Many UK MPs have deemed the company’s actions as “callous" and "disgraceful".

Maritime minister Robert Courts said to BBC that he was "frankly angry at the way workers have been treated". In the House of Commons, he mentioned P&O Ferries' actions were "wholly unacceptable".

P&O Ferries carried more than 10 million passengers per year before the COVID-19 pandemic. It also carried about 15 percent of all freight and cargo in and out of the UK. During the pandemic it saw a slump in demand and after paying a hefty dividend to its investors, the company announced it would cut 1,100 jobs.

Better.com, the online-mortgage lending company, had similarly fired 900 employees over a Zoom call in December. After the video went viral, CEO Vishal Garg apologised for his manner of handling layoffs.

The company announced this month that it was laying off another 3,000 employees.

(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)