Responsible for the express dismissal of some 800 employees in March, the general director of the ferry company P&O Peter Hebblethwaite was elected this Monday “worst boss in the world” outside the Congress of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Following an online vote, open to all, the British airline chief bested his US Amazon counterpart Jeff Bezos and the chief executive of Australian airline Qantas Alan Joyce, the confederation reported on Twitter.
The CSI, which organized the vote on the occasion of its quadrennial Congress in Melbourne, had selected three other candidates for the title of “worst boss of the year”: Gina Rinehart at the head of the Australian mining group Hancock Prospecting, Howard Schultz (Starbucks) and Ahmed bin Said Al-Maktoum (UAE). Peter Hebblethwaite’s “disgrace” “reaches international heights after being voted the world’s worst boss,” Stephen Cotton said in a CSI press release.
For the general secretary of the transport union federation ITF, the executive directors are “warned: if you do not defend the rights of workers and guarantee them decent jobs, safe working conditions, respect and dignity, the international trade union movement will not stop retaining them “. to the account.” Peter Hebblethwaite has been punished by Internet users for having made almost 800 sailors redundant overnight, and having replaced them with workers paid less than the British minimum wage.
No union negotiations
In his defense, the P&O boss kept repeating that the company’s cost model was unsustainable and that it was losing £100m a year. He had stunned a parliamentary committee by explaining that P&O leaders had knowingly broken the law, bypassing union negotiations, which were nonetheless mandatory. Following these shocking UK redundancies, the UK authorities have launched criminal and civil investigations.
In the list of “worst boss in the world”, Peter Hebblethwaite succeeds Jeff Bezos (2014) and the CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary (2018). On Monday, the new ITUC General Secretary, Italian Luca Visentini, also gave his first speech the day after his election. He vowed to “struggle without truce” to achieve “peace and social justice” for workers around the world, according to an ITUC statement. “We want jobs that do not harm the climate, rights for workers, fair wages, social protection, equality and inclusion,” listed Luca Visentini, who succeeds Australian Sharan Burrow, in office since 2010.
Source: BFM TV
