Fired workers and their supporters took to the streets of Dover to mark one year since the P&O sackings scandal.

Almost 800 seafarers lost their jobs on March 17 last year after the firm revealed redundancies in a shock move - without any prior consultation or warning.

Twelve months on, a quarter of the 600 Dover-based staff are still unemployed and many of those with new jobs have far lower rates of pay.

The RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) organised the march today, with general secretary Mick Lynch addressing the crowd at its base in Snargate Street ahead of the protest.

The group then walked to Channel House, P&O's headquarters.

Speaking to KentOnline ahead of the day, Lee Davison, Dover branch secretary for the RMT, said: “We want to remind people what P&O Ferries did to the local workforce.

“It should never be forgotten.

“Some of the older guys gave up work entirely, some got new jobs but not on the same money.

“Some people have struggled with their mental health.

“They used being at work as part of a support network and that was just pulled from under them.

“There is no excuse for the way P&O behaved.”

Bosses at P&O Ferries, which is owned by parent company DP World, claimed the controversial decision to sack so many workers was vital in order to save the struggling business; it had losses of more than £200 million in the previous two years.

Cheaper agency workers were brought in to replace the seafarers.

Protests were held that day, and in the following ones, and eventually all but one member of laid-off staff accepted redundancy packages.

The one who did not take the payment was John Lansdown, who has since won a legal victory against P&O Ferries over the sackings.

But he says he has had no permanent work since last year after losing his job as a chef on the Pride of Canterbury.

He has a mortgage and is only just getting by with temporary jobs as a sea-going chef, now having to dip into his savings.

He has given tens of thousands of pounds from his out-of-court settlement with P&O to the charity Sailors’ Children’s Society.

Mr Lansdown, 40, of Herne Bay, said: “I don’t regret giving that money away because a lot of children have benefited.

“I had only taken action because I wanted to expose a system that was unfair.

“It could happen again tomorrow - there is nothing to stop another employer suddenly making a mass of its workers redundant.

“But it is extremely stressful now and I have no security, which I had when I was employed by P&O.”

Mr Davison, whose last post was deck petty officer before also losing his job, told KentOnline some people are still struggling to find work.

Some secured jobs with rival ferry firm DFDS while others work with Stena Line, sailing from Harwich and Holyhead.

Others have found jobs in places such as the Home Bargains store in Whitfield.

A P&O spokesman says the company has maintained the same level of customers over the past 12 months.

They added: “Significant changes in the last year have saved this business, including the 2,200 jobs we secured in coastal communities across the UK. As a result, we are now serving the needs of our passenger and freight customers much better than ever before.

“During 2022, we carried more passengers between Dover and Calais than any other ferry operator.

“In addition, our market share for the second half of last year matched the level of February 2022.

“Through our new flexible operating model, we have optimised sailings to meet customer demand, something we could not have done before.

“We have invested £250 million in our fleet - with our new state-of-the-art hybrid propulsion vessels joining soon - enabling us to thrive in a highly competitive market. There is strong customer demand, shown by the more than one million passengers we carried last summer and booking numbers that are now the highest we’ve had either during or since the Covid-19 pandemic.”

P&O Ferries is a separate company to P&O Cruises which is operated by Carnival UK. It split from the ferries part of the business in 2000 and was unaffected by the dismissals.