MP wants 'justice' for sacked workers

The dispute led to 2,000 P&O workers being sacked

An MP is demanding compensation and apologies for 2,000 people sacked in the 1980s, in what he describes as "a huge injustice".

The P&O Ferries workers were dismissed for refusing to sign new contracts in a dispute over working practices and safety which began 15 years ago this week.

Dover MP Gwyn Prosser, who was working at sea himself at the time, wants the issue to be debated in the Commons.

More than 40 other MPs from across the UK have backed his campaign.

We've been going for 15 years - justice is needed

Sacked worker Steve Stevenson

The ferry workers, based in Dover, began their protest in 1988 when they felt new contracts they were asked to sign compromised their safety - just months after the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster.

Their strike continued into 1989 and after 14 months they were sacked.

Gwyn Prosser: "They were acting properly"

"These men and women were on legal strike - they were acting completely properly," Mr Prosser said.

"They were sacked purely and simply because they were taking industrial action."

Mr Prosser tabled a motion in the House of Commons on Thursday, claiming P&O was in breach of a 1991 International Labour Organisation convention, which ruled those sacked had been unfairly dismissed.

P&O maintained at the time it was just modernising working practices.

It says now the sackings are consigned to the past.

Sacked worker Steve Stevenson said: "We're not asking for everything in the world. We're not people jumping on the compensation bandwagon.

"We've been going for 15 years, justice is needed."