P&O chief took pay rise in year after sacking 800 workers
• Boris Johnson backs calls for P&O Ferries boss to quit
The accounts also show that Hebblethwaite, 54, was paid £683,000 in the year, plus £32,000 of company-paid contributions into his pension pot.
That is substantially more than the £440,000 paid to his predecessor in the job and more than the amount he disclosed to the business and trade select committee of the House of Commons. He told MPs who were questioning him about the mass dismissal in March 2022 that he was on a salary of £325,000 and that he had received a bonus of £183,000, a payment that he recognised would be seen as controversial.
At that testy hearing Hebblethwaite was accused of being 'a pirate' who was 'robbing staff blind' after the decision to sack nearly 800 mainly British workers and put the remaining workforce on international seafarer agency contracts not covered by the UK's national minimum wage laws under which pay started at £5.20 an hour. At the time the national minimum wage in the UK was £11.44 an hour.
P&O Ferries has been owned since 2006 by the Dubai royal family led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, best known in the UK for his extensive bloodstock and horseracing interests.
P&O Ferries is now part of Dubai Ports World, whose other interests in the UK include the London Gateway port on the Thames and the port of Southampton.
In a statement, P&O Ferries said: 'These results show the progress we're making in transforming the business. Losses are down and financial performance is improving. Our focus on high-quality experience is driving growth across both tourism and freight, with more people choosing to travel with us and satisfaction scores rising. We're matching capacity to meet demand, and continue to invest in greener, more efficient vessels.'
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